Venezuela: Fake elections in a dictatorship

Venezuela's night grows darker

Voting booth in Venezuela

Sunday's fake election in Venezuela brings the South American nation another step closer to Cuban-style totalitarianism. The outcome of the fraud was preordained, another "victory" for Nicolas Maduro. However the actual victor was the Castro regime that remains firmly in control of the South American country.

Ration cards have been issued for food in a country were mass hunger is an ever present reality and it is understood by many that following regime instructions, such as going to vote in a sham election, is necessary to be eligible for rations. The Maduro regime has continued, the process started under Hugo Chavez, of taking over sectors of the economy.

That’s not a voting line but rather a group of Venezuelans waiting to have the “Fatherland Card” scanned after casting ballots. Some cardholders day they hope to see the “prize” Maduro promised in exchange for their vote pic.twitter.com/SkyemvJa9E

— Joshua Goodman (@APjoshgoodman) May 20, 2018

Venezuela has been a dictatorship for sometime. Back in October of 2012 following another fake election in that South American country the following observation was made in this blog:

"Venezuela is not a democracy. Power has been concentrated for more than a decade into the hands of Hugo Chavez, his political party and Cuban handlers. The judiciary and the Congress were subordinated to Hugo Chavez. What you have had in Venezuela today is a contested election in a non-democratic country." 

Six years later the same can be said with the exception that this election was not contested. Major opposition parties were outlawed and the most popular opposition leaders banned from running. The opposition called for a boycott of the presidential elections. In addition to that the electoral process itself is one of irregularities and illegalities carried out by the Maduro regime. Venezuela is on its way to completing the transition from an authoritarian dictatorship to a totalitarian one. It is no longer a case of not opposing the regime, but actively supporting it or risk being punished.

Nicolas Maduro's timeline in power

Nevertheless, millions of Venezuelans refused to take part in the farce and boycotted the elections and the international community is refusing to accept the "results." Night maybe deepening in Venezuela, but Venezuelans are not going silently into the totalitarian abyss.  Anti-government protests took place across Venezuela and internationally.

TR @MaihenH That no Venezuelan miss watching this video. Without a doubt it is to demonstrate the deception of @NicolasMaduro when simulating that he is greeting a sea of ​​voters and there is no one. Help me so that everyone can see this video. pic.twitter.com/AOvrsAEmP6 https://t.co/BYQRkEan7U

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) May 21, 2018

Reflections on the electoral fraud in Cuba

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will count the votes, and how.” - Josef Stalin (1923)

Raul Castro goes to "vote." What is wrong with this picture?

 In a free society one elects who will represent them and one can petition their neighbors to vote for them and run for office. In a communist regime one decides on whether or not to suffer the consequences of not affirming the dictatorship by voting in an exercise in which there is no choice in representation. The Castro regime held what it called "municipal elections" on Sunday, November 26, 2017. The act of electing who will rule was made by those in power before the publicized vote took place.

This has not taken place in Cuba since 1950.

Yoani Sanchez reported over twitter that "[t]hese municipal elections were presented by the official propaganda as a backing for the "legacy" of Fidel Castro, it was very important for the Government to achieve greater participation, just 3 months before the end of Raúl Castro's presidency."

#Cuba Estas elecciones municipales fueron presentadas por la propaganda oficial como un espaldarazo al "legado" de Fidel Castro y era muy importante para el #Gobierno lograr una mayor participación, justo a menos de tres meses de la salida de la presidencia de Raúl Castro. pic.twitter.com/TmRtvtxGsj

— Yoani Sánchez (@yoanisanchez) November 28, 2017

There was an electoral farce in Cuba this past Sunday. The 58 year old communist dictatorship in Cuba blocked 175 opposition candidates from running. Only one political party, the Cuban Communist Party recognized as legal in the constitution. St. Kitts and Nevis Oberver in the November 27, 2017 article Cuba Marks Castro’s Death with Pseudo Democratic Elections reported that "[s]tate-run media is championing the belief that the elections are a way for citizens to show support for Fidel Castro’s ideas. In the provincial and national votes, candidates were chosen by commissions made up of Communist Party representatives."

Finally, ballots marked Plebiscite were not counted and reported. Rosa María Payá of CubaDecide reported over twitter that the "[e]lectoral college arbitrarily denied the request to count the canceled ballots, without answering arguments of the claim. Now there is a spectacular siege of State Security to violate our citizens' rights and the Electoral Law itself."

Colegio electoral denegó arbitrariamente la solicitud de contar las boletas anuladas, sin responder los argumentos de reclamación. Ahora hay un aparatoso cerco de la Seguridad del Estado para violar nuestro derechos ciudadanos y la propia Ley Electoral.

— Rosa María Payá A. (@RosaMariaPaya) November 26, 2017

 teleSUR, a Chavista news outlet with a pro-Castro slant was tone deaf in the November 27, 2017 title it picked to report on the proceedings in Cuba last Sunday: "Elections in Cuba: Like Nowhere Else!" The first paragraph continues in "awe" of the "election" in Cuba reporting, "No banners. No posters. No placards. No advertisements. No slogans. No campaigning. It is Election Day in Cuba, yet I cannot see any sign of it. Some 27,000 candidates are competing for 605 seats in the Cuban National Assembly, yet I cannot see one."

The reason for the lack of campaigning to convince every day Cubans to vote for them is because they do not have a say. Cuba is a dictatorship, elections are a farce, and a public relations campaign to legitimize the dictatorship.

This is not a choice but a farce or a fraud masquerading as an election in a Stalinist exercise of control.

Rosa María Payá: 'Change' in Cuba is fraud

Text published in The Miami Herald on April 13, 2013

Verbatim

 'Change' in Cuba is fraud 

Moderator Tony Díaz Sánchez introduces Rosa María Payá

Excerpts from remarks by Cuban dissident Rosa María Payá while in Washington on Tuesday to speak to the National Endowment for Democracy:

It would be nice if the Cuban government were making democratic reforms, but that's not true because these reforms have not given human rights to Cuban citizens.

It would be nice if Cubans could travel freely, but that's not true because the government has to allow the persons to obtain their passport and this is conditioned.
 
It would be nice if the economic reforms delivered self-management to citizens, but that's not true because Cubans are not free to do business with anybody at any moment.
 
It would be nice if the Cuban government were opening a transition process, but that's not true because the repression against the members of our movement and the whole opposition has increased.
 
It would be nice if the Cuban government were peaceful and respectful, but that's not true because the state security of this government calls my family's house to say "I'm going to kill you."  

They did it before my father's death and they still do it.

I'm sorry, but things are not nice right now in my country. Although a lot of Cubans are working for real changes -- and this is definitely the nice part.

My father Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero dedicated their life to fight for democracy of Cuba.  They were working on effective and peaceful alternatives -- instruments that can be implemented during the transition process.

They were strongly denouncing the "fraud change" that is taking place in the island.

And what is the "fraud change"?

The "fraud change" is this big process in which the Cuban government and its accomplices have developed a series of legal reforms and public messages designed to preserve its power and its authority.

They are trying to sell to the international community false images of opening wide. At the same time, the violent aggression against opposition members and their families has increased.

These new laws not only confirm the government control.  They also maintain the discrimination against Cuban citizens and do not guarantee citizen's rights.

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