Only yesterday, it seemed that the Venezuelan socialists’ days were numbered. Ahead of the presidential elections, international and local polls pointed to a convincing victory for the opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzáles. The day after the elections, all the indications point to the fact that a massive electoral fraud has happened. We spoke to Alejandro Peña Esclusa about the mechanism of fraud and the situation at hand, who said that Venezuelans will not accept the result of the elections. Some of his comments are also reminiscent of what is happening in Slovenia.
Alejandro Peña Esclusa is a Venezuelan author, former political prisoner, dissident and analyst specialising in what is happening in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America. He had to flee to Europe because of the persecution of the Chavista regime.
The pre-election polls and the exit polls that were conducted at the polling stations predicted major shifts in Venezuelan politics. The company Edison Research, which also conducts exit polls in presidential elections in the USA, predicted a victory for the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzales with 65 percent of the vote. The Socialist Maduro was predicted to win only 31 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, the local “pollster” Meganalisi predicted even less support for the Socialists. Its researchers predict that Gonzales should receive 65 percent of the vote and Maduro only 14 percent. But instead, the opposite has happened. The Venezuelan authorities declared Maduro’s victory. He has supposedly received 51 percent of the vote, while the opposition candidate, Gonzales, received only 44 percent. How is this possible?
If you read my book, The Electoral Frauds of the São Paulo Forum, which is also available in Slovenian, you will understand how this massive fraud was perpetrated. The scam starts months before the elections and ends weeks after the elections. It begins with the installation of cadres loyal to the regime in positions of electoral power. It is not impartial – it is biased, it is a collaborator of the authorities. In Venezuela, many voters do not take part in the elections, and this can be exploited in electronic voting. They can simply ‘make up’ voters.
They then move on to fake electoral polls to try and convince the electorate that the left will win. Then there is the tampering with the electoral register and the use of electronic voting machines and/or electronic vote counting systems. These are rigged in such a way that they can be used to cheat. This, by the way, is proof that electronic voting systems are not suitable because they can be manipulated too easily; Venezuela is proof of that.
The next level is the selection of international observers who are biased and ideologically linked to the government. Venezuela has refused to allow the European Union to send observers to the recent elections. Politicians who tried to accompany the opposition to the elections were expelled from the country.
All of this combined creates a situation in which fraud can easily take place. This is not the first time that fraud has been committed in Venezuela. If you read my book, there is a chapter devoted to how the Venezuelan regime carried out fraud in 2004. And they have been cheating ever since. The only difference is that this time, the fraud was so big, so scandalous, that many governments are now unwilling to recognise the election results.
It seems incredible that, after so many years of misery created by the Venezuelan socialist regime, there is still a proportion of the population that has given it its vote.
Venezuela has been abducted. In Venezuela, if you have no links with the government, you do not eat, you do not work. Remember, our country is an oil producer, so the economy is managed by the government, which sells the oil and then distributes the wealth. If you are not connected to the government, you are in a very difficult position. The government or the regime is blackmailing the population, and if you do not vote for the government, you lose your job and your chance to eat. Poor people receive a box every few weeks. The box contains rice, oil, grains, and the government gives the package to the people who cooperate with them. If they don’t cooperate, they don’t eat.
Maduro has announced the so-called ‘great national dialogue.’ Presumably between the government, the opposition, the business community, and others. What are your expectations regarding this announcement?
It is a lie. He knows that he has stolen the elections, he knows that the people do not agree with the results and that they are furious and angry. We can expect further repression in Venezuela. Repression against the people and repression against the opposition. He is only saying this because he wants various countries to recognise his alleged victory, as they have not done it yet – except for certain countries such as China, Russia … Argentina does not recognise the results, nor do Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Guatemala, Costa Rica – these countries do not recognise the results of the election.
What is left for the opposition now? What else can it do?
I think that this is just the beginning of a bigger struggle, because the Venezuelan people will not accept these results. Everyone knows that fraud has been committed. It was not just the exit polls that you mentioned. The people on the streets – so many in favour of the opposition and so few in favour of the government that it was obvious that candidate Edmundo Gonzáles was going to win. Moreover, Maria Corina Machado, who is the leader of the Venezuelan opposition and who was in charge of the election campaign, had 40 percent of the ballots in her hands on election day, proving that Edmundo Gonzales was winning with 70 percent of the vote in the whole country – in every state, in every region.
We have an opposition; we have to fight for the results to be recognised. Because this fight is not over. There are two parts to this fight. The internal part is within Venezuela. The population must continue to fight for its rights – peacefully, but it must fight for its rights. They have voted, they have elected a President, and that President is Edmundo Gonzales. His victory should be respected. And then there is the international community, which must condemn this scandalous fraud, because if one leader can commit such a fraud, anyone can. In addition, Maduro is working with the Russians, he is working with China, he is working with Iran. Venezuela is a country linked to organised crime, to drug trafficking, which will be a threat to Western civilisation.
Alejandro Peña Esclusa is well known to our readers. Three of his books have already been published in Slovenian; namely, The Electoral Frauds of the São Paulo Forum, The São Paulo Forum’s Cultural Welfare, and Classical Art and Cultural Marxism.
Žiga Korsika
