Venezuela: Contested elections in a country with an anti-democratic regime

Voting in Venezuela is a militarized process full of irregularities

Armed forces sent to "guard" the electoral process in Venezuela

 Today's vote in Venezuela is important but it won't be the decisive factor in restoring democracy in that country. If the opposition truly believe that the majority voting against Maduro's political party, the PSUV will alone end his dictatorship then they have lost before the first ballot was cast.  On Tuesday, December 1st on his weekly television show Nicolas Maduro spoke clearly on how he would respond to an opposition victory in the legislative elections: "I will never allow this to happen, ever. I would go out on the streets and fight side by side with the people." His government's approval ratings are languishing around 22 percent but may narrow the opposition's margin of victory or yet "win" the vote today through massive fraud. Even if he were to lose in the elections Maduro has declared: "Were we to lose, which I find unimaginable, I will govern with the people in a civilian-military alliance." Civil society and the democratic opposition need to do much more to ensure that the votes of Venezuelans today and their right to vote are respected. These are contested elections in a country with an anti-democratic regime in power.

Maduro's PSUV campaigning on election day in violation of the law

The Maduro regime has demonstrated once again today that it does not respect the rule of law when it comes to the ruling party and its own regime. There have been reports that the military have blocked entry of opposition poll watchers to the polling stations. According to Venezuelan electoral law campaigning should have ended on Thursday night at midnight, but Maduro's political party has set up campaigning tents near voting centers today drawing complaints from citizens in Caracas, La Florida, and elsewhere. Reports have emerged of voting centers with broken equipment and voter intimidation by PSUV supporters. Attorney Edicson Cubillan and Franklin Gavidia of the opposition Democratic Unity were detained  in Aragua when they opposed massive "assisted voting."

Former presidents from Latin America, Luis Alberto Lacalle of Uruguay, Andrés Pastrana of Colombia, Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia and Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica had their credentials suspended and Diosdado Cabello called for their expulsion from Venezuela for having criticized the irregularities in the election. 

Venezuelans lining up to vote this morning in legislative elections (Photo: RMP)

Human rights defender Santiago A. Canton gave seven reasons in an article in CNN en Español on why the Venezuelan elections will not be free, or transparent or fair because of the actions taken by the Maduro regime to compromise them before election day: 

(1) Ballot positioning: the ruling party is highlighted in the first ballot box, the main opposition party gets lost among countless squares, colors and symbols of minor parties. 
(2) Mainstream media controlled by Maduro. Since 2000 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, have reiterated the lack of freedom of expression in Venezuela. On November 30, 2015 international reporters were required to sign a good conduct pledge before the election.
(3) Political violence and intimidation are constant. Opposition candidate Luis Manuel Diaz was assassinated. President Nicolas Maduro said that the murder of Diaz was due to a clash between gangs. 
(4.) Maduro set the clock back in Latin America three decades, when he did not accept international election observation. 
(5) Leopoldo Lopez, one of the leading opposition leaders remains in prison  despite  complaints from the UN, the IACHR and human rights organizations. Next to him are about seventy others made up of political leaders and students. Lopez was sentenced to 13 years, 9 months, 7 days and 12 hours in prison in a political show trial. 
(6) Several opposition leaders have been declared ineligible to be candidates in the elections by Maduro including popular candidates Leopoldo Lopez Mendoza and more recently María Corina Machado. Regional human rights courts found Maduro's disqualification procedure running afoul of the American Convention.
(7) State of siege extended to 23 municipalities in the states of Zulia, Tachira and Apure, prohibiting, among others the rights to public assembly, of transit and to demonstrate peacefully. In these municipalities the military is the "sole authority" that responds directly to Nicolas Maduro who appointed them.

These are some of the reasons that international organizations have expressed their concerns about today's legislative elections and are trying to assist with observers. María Corina Machado over twitter yesterday explained the stakes: "Win by a landslide or a monumental fraud will be done that we will not accept." 

Cuban Youth Address Oswaldo Payá Teach-In at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity

"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." - Vaclav Havel

Sayli, Henry and Rosa discuss the state of Cuba today

Young Cubans addressed the question earlier tonight: "Is Cuba Changing or does Totalitarianism Continue?" at the Oswaldo Payá Teach-In at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Coconut Grove located on the Bay. Rosa Maria Paya Acevedo, Sayli Navarro and Henry Constantin each gave their vision of the current situation on the island and prospects for real change in short presentations. The consensus from the three is that the government of Cuba is not changing and that the much publicized measures are more for international consumption, but repression and the desire to stay in power remains undiminished. However, at the same time the Cuban people are changing, losing their fear, little by little, and demonstrating greater solidarity with the democratic opposition.




Meanwhile in Cuba

At mid-day the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) tweeted that Dr. Eduardo Cardet and other MCL members received a death threat  for wanting to attend the trial against MCL member Werlando Leyva.  At 4:18pm Rosa Maria Paya Acevedo tweeted that  Dr. Eduardo Cardet and Lisban Mariño had been detained in the morning for for hours to prevent them attending Werlando's trial.Werlando had been the victim of a machete attack by a government agent on June of 2013 and today was placed on trial and faced with a false and incoherent witness and the government wanted to fine him. Following the attack Werlando spoke out and denounced the crime.

Among the MCL members who had tried to attend the trial of Werlando Leyva was Damaso Fernandez who has physical-motor disabilities and he too was detained and mistreated to stop him from attending the sham trial.


However, despite all the above, Cubans are slowly losing their fear and demonstrating greater solidarity with democratic opposition. This is due in part precisely to the above abuses that generate a boomerang effect with the repression that raises the outrage of Cubans witnessing such attacks on human dignity and rights.


There is hope for the people of Cuba.

Former prisoner of conscience and Christian Liberation Movement spokesman addresses the World Movement for Democracy

Statement by Regis Iglesias, Christian Liberation Movement spokesman upon receiving on behalf of the Cuban opposition movement the Democracy Courage Tribute from the World Movement for Democracy (WMD)

Cubans have lived under dictatorships or totalitarian regimes for over half a century.

Our situation is dramatic. 50 years without freedom of expression, freedom of association, without economic rights for citizens. Cubans do not have freedom of movement. The Cuban family is divided, our Nation is divided and popular sovereignty is trampled on by the oligarchs in power.

I have the privilege to receive this recognition that is being given to us today, on behalf of all Cubans throughout this painful time have worked and fought for the rights of the Cuban people. Men and women like  Ofelia Acevedo, Ernesto Martini, Librado Linares, Eduardo Diaz, Jorge García Perez, (Antunez), Sara Fonseca, Rosa Rodriguez, Ivan Hernandez who like many others still resist there in Cuba, beset by brutal repression.

I receive it on behalf of more than 25,000 citizens that in the midst of terror have demanded the regime hold a plebiscite for their rights, on behalf of thousands of activists for freedom that in the face of fraudulent change that the joint military-economic junta of the island want to sell  give their support to "El Camino del Pueblo" [The People's Path]. I receive it in the name of Felix Navarro, Angel Moya, Ezequiel Morales, Berta Soler, Rosa María Paya, Narviel Hernandez, Orlando Luis Pardo and many, many more. None of them can be here today, as you, because the joint military-economic junta on the island doesn't permit them to leave their own country. Fraudulent changes announced by the Cuban regime do not include all rights for all Cubans.

But above all I want to receive this recognition for all my countrymen, for all the martyrs who along more than half a century of totalitarianism have generously given their lives for liberation. On behalf of Pedro Luis Boitel, Sebastian Arcos, Orlando Zapata, Julio Ruiz Pitaluga, Laura Pollan.. Also for Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Paya for whom we will not rest until the truth is known about their deaths and we urge the international community to support an independent investigation that finally recognizes the crime.

With the decision of the Cuban people and your solidarity, of all men and women of good will in the world some day justice will arrive to our beloved Cuban land, the truth will have its temple. Cuba reborn and free all her children be reconciled tired of both despotism and hatred.

Truth and love will reign in our beloved island. We need our Latin American brothers, our democratic friends around the world to be with us now, that their commitment be on the side of the Cuban people who are suffering and have no rights. Dictatorships only despotic and oppressive systems that generally in the name of national sovereignty restrict popular sovereignty and leave citizens without rights.  

Thank you for walking in solidarity with Cubans all these years the steps have brought us closer to freedom, thank you that together we will realize that day long dreamed by us. 

Regis Iglesias


Palabras de Regis Iglesias, portavoz del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, al recibir en nombre del movimiento opositor cubano el Premio al Valor del Movimiento Mundial por la Democracia (WMD)

Los cubanos hemos vivido bajo regímenes dictatoriales o totalitarios por mas de medio siglo.

Nuestra situación es dramática. 50 años sin libertad de expresión, sin libertad de asociación, sin derechos económicos para los ciudadanos. Los cubanos no tenemos libertad de movimiento. La familia cubana esta dividida, nuestra Nación esta dividida y la soberanía popular es pisoteada por los oligarcas en el poder.

Tengo el privilegio de recibir este reconocimiento que hoy se nos entrega., en nombre de todos los cubanos que a lo largo de este tiempo doloroso han trabajado y luchado por los derechos del pueblo cubano. Hombres y mujeres como Ofelia Acevedo, Ernesto Martini, Librado Linares, Eduardo Diaz, Jorge García Perez, (Antunez), Sara Fonseca, Rosa Rodriguez, Ivan Hernandez que como muchos otros aun resisten allí, en Cuba, acosados por la brutal represión.

Lo recibo en nombre de los más de 25,000 ciudadanos que en medio del terror han demandado al régimen un plebiscito por sus derechos, en nombre de miles de activistas por la libertad que frente al cambio fraude que nos quiere vender la junta económico militar de la isla dan su apoyo al documento El Camino del Pueblo. Lo recibo a nombre de Felix Navarro, Angel Moya, Ezequiel Morales, Berta Soler, Rosa María Paya, Narviel Hernandez, Orlando Luis Pardo y muchos, muchos mas. Ninguno de ellos puede hoy estar aquí, como ustedes, porque la junta económico militar en la isla no les permite salir de su propio país. Los cambios fraudes que anuncia el régimen cubano no incluyen todos los derechos para todos los cubanos.

Pero sobre todo quiero recibir este reconocimiento por todos mis compatriotas, por todos los mártires que a lo largo de mas de medio siglo de totalitarismo han dado sus vidas generosas por la liberación. En nombre de Pedro Luis Boitel, Sebastian Arcos, Orlando Zapata, Julio Ruiz Pitaluga, Laura Pollan. También en el de Harold Cepero y Oswaldo Paya por quienes no descansaremos hasta que la verdad sobre sus muertes sea conocida e instamos a la comunidad internacional a que apoye una investigación independiente que finalmente reconozca el crimen.

Con la decisión de los cubanos y la solidaridad de ustedes, de todos los hombres y mujeres de buena voluntad del mundo la justicia llegara algún día a nuestra amada tierra cubana, la verdad tendrá su templo. Cuba renacerá y libres se reconciliaran todos sus hijos cansados de tanto despotismo y odio.

La verdad y el amor reinaran en nuestra amada isla. Necesitamos que nuestros hermanos latinoamericanos, nuestros amigos demócratas de todo el mundo estén con nosotros ahora, que su compromiso esté del lado pueblo cubano que sufre y no tiene derechos . Las dictaduras solo sistemas despóticos y opresivos que por lo general en nombre de la soberanía nacional coartan la soberanía popular y dejan a los ciudadanos sin derechos..

Gracias a ustedes por caminar solidarios junto a los cubanos todos estos años los pasos que nos han acercado a la libertad, gracias porque juntos podremos hacer realidad ese día largamente soñado por nosotros.

Regis Iglesias

http://www.proyecto-varela.org/?p=246

Oswaldo Paya's daughter tells the Castro regime: Leave my family alone!

Rosa Maria Acevedo Payá

Last Friday, a Blue Lada car  of state security with the license plate HS 3133 followed my brother while he drove our VW in the Cerro neighborhood.

The car that followed him was driven by a major in uniform traveling along with two state security officers.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CUBA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE LIFE OF MY FAMILY

-According to other witnesses, a LADA car with three people traveled next to the car where my father and Harold Cepero died.

Why does state security pursue us?

LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!
 



Rosa Maria Acevedo Payá


Original Spanish text below taken from the official MCL Oswaldo Paya website. 

Rosa Maria Acevedo Payá

El viernes pasado, un auto Lada Azul, de la seguridad del estado con chapa HS 3133 seguía a mi hermano mientras conducia nuestra VW por el barrio del Cerro.

El auto que le seguia estaba manejado por un mayor de uniforme  que viajaba junto con dos oficiales de la seguridad del estado

EL GOBIERNO DE CUBA ES RESPONSABLE DE LO QUE  SUCEDA  CON LA VIDA DE MI FAMILIA

-Según otros  testigos, un auto LADA con tres personas viajaba junto al auto donde murieron mi padre y Harold Cepero

¿Por qué nos persigue la seguridad del estado?

¡ DEJEN A MI FAMILIA EN PAZ !

Rosa  Maria Payá Acevedo

We will not be silenced, and we will not stop seeking the truth

"When a truth is not given complete freedom, freedom is not complete." - Vaclav Havel


The following statement was read by Oswaldo Paya's daughter in a press conference in Cuba on August 1, 2012. It has been translated to English below and offers important information and new questions surrounding the deaths on July 22, 2012 of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.

Rosa María Payá Acevedo and her mother Ofelia Acevedo

Words read at press conference by Rosa María Payá Acevedo

I do not intend today to give another version of what happened. We are not at this moment accusing anyone. The facts that I will continue to relate were read by Captain Fulgencio Medina, criminal instructor, in a room at Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Hospital in Bayamo on the evening of Sunday July 22. I will not make clarifications on how these reports have come into our hands. We do not want to subject to the pressures of state security, the people who in solidarity with our family have sent us this news.

As we have been told, Captain Fulgencio Medina, criminal instructor, reading the witness statements of the events that took the life of my father, and of Harold, told the following to everyone in one of the halls of the hospital:

The captain said he would tell how it happened, reading the statements of the witnesses, saying:

Witnesses of the bike and of the tractor said that there was a red Lada traveling parallel to the wrecked car.

In a moment the wrecked car goes ahead of all, the bicycle, the tractor and the red Lada and at that moment comes the change of pavement, of the pavement to the embankment.

The cyclist says he only sees the dust when the car drops (but it seemed normal).

The individual in the tractor comments that it seems that something happened. The officer says that another tractor was coming from the front but apparently the road was wide enough and the tractor was far enough to cause any reaction in Angel. There was no danger of impact.

Those in the red Lada come to the rescue, in the words of the witnesses on the bicycle and in the tractor.

The officer said that witnesses say that when the persons in the Lada approached to help the Spaniard , he reacted saying: Who are you and why are you doing this? First they take out the Spaniard and there was one complaining (which apparently was Harold), but he had a very sore leg and was touching his chest, as if it hurt a lot. With the other they do not do anything because they say they touched him and realized he was dead.

They first removed the two foreigners, and the red Lada takes out a cell phone that they had and say: send an ambulance over here there has been an accident. At that moment a blue van arrives and some of the injured are placed on it and leave for the hospital.

Receive a call from the girl and say they don’t know who the cell phone belongs to because everything was a mess. First attended by a traffic officer and then by a legal doctor.

Fulgencio Medina said he knew the daughter had called because the legal doctor who had been in the ambulance answered.

This ends the information that has come to us about what Captain Fulgencio Medina said that evening in that room with other officers and all others who were there.

It seems to us very strange:

1. That a legal doctor would arrive in the ambulance.

2. That in none of the official versions is this red Lada mentioned and the people traveling in it.

3. But for the people traveling in the red Lada who could then have called the ambulance.

4. The reaction, according to witnesses, Angel had at the time of being rescued.

5. Who and how was the premature diagnosis of the death of my father made.

We have received other information, including:

We have information that the ambulance was requested by a lieutenant colonel and that in an ambulance they took Harold to the hospital, but first made a stop in a children's hospital.

We have also information that the doctor who attended Harold (called ¨ The Kid ¨, son of Dr. Perez Profet) expressed contempt for him. And he told the other doctors and nurses that these people were bringing drugs to Santiago and to plant bombs.

This raises questions about the care my friend received in that hospital.

We have been informed that Angel arrived at the hospital accompanied by an officer who said he was an eyewitness to the accident, and that there Angel said twice that the car had been rammed from behind.

I ask myself, if this officer was a witness:

What was he doing there?

Why not transfer the injured in his car?

If it was he who called, how did he know the hospital phone?

Would he be one of those in the red Lada?

I also have doubts regarding the technical condition of the car carrying my father and Harold.

To our friends, people who represented us that day in the hospital until my mother could get there, they would not let them see the body of my father until after 8 pm. They told us that the corpse had a syringe placed at the top of the leg, a shirt, … and shoes and that at that time the body was still without treatment, storage, or refrigeration.

About Harold’s state, a physician told them that the boy was going to die because he was brain dead. This data, the latter, does not coincide with the official version of the cause of death of Harold Cepero and is also very strange because witnesses say they saw Harold conscious according to information we received about the words read by Captain Fulgencio Medina.

Our friends did not have access to the survivors until after Angel was sedated so that they could never talk to him. With Aron they could barely identify themselves because they do not speak English.

Aron, Angel and I met Friday afternoon and talked, as three young people converse with social concerns without interfering agendas and money involved.

My father faced the power of a state, a totalitarian state with 53 years experience. And that state is dropping all its force against a family, my family for many years now. Once more I fear for the lives of my brothers, my mother and my whole family. I reiterate that I hold the government responsible for the physical integrity of the members of my family.

We have the support of many within and outside Cuba, we thank you deeply. On the other hand, we know that these events have become a matter of state and we know that sometimes between states there are pacts and silence, but while others remain silent we will not be silenced, and we will not stop seeking the truth even if it means remaining alone. My father, the Christian Liberation Movement and my family have seen ourselves alone before. We do not fear solitude. We know, because we seem to have been touching it in recent days, that only evil fears the truth.

August 1, 2012

Original Spanish text available here. Take action by signing the petition requesting a transparent and independent international investigation into the deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero. The regime in Cuba has a long track record of this type of behavior. Others such as Lech Walesa have joined the call for getting at the truth of what happened.