By Alejandro Peña Esclusa
On July 28, 2024, Venezuelans were the star protagonists of a heroic deed, which they will share with their children and grandchildren in the years to come. Despite all obstacles and threats, people attended to vote en masse and in a peaceful and democratic manner. They stayed at the polling stations to guarantee transparency of the process and safeguard the electoral records. That day, Venezuelans made the first paragraph of their national anthem meaningful: “Glory to the brave people!”
If that were not enough, opposition leader María Corina Machado, unexpectedly and silently, implemented a brilliant strategy: the scanning and broadcasting of more than 80 percent of the electoral records, with the witnesses’s signatures and the corresponding QR codes. After that, the records were uploaded to the website “Venezuela’s Results.” That meant anyone, in any part of the world, could see them.
The results were devastating for the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Opposition candidate Edmundo González dealt a real blow to Chavismo, obtaining 67 percent of the votes, compared to Nicolás Maduro’s 30 percent. Cornered by such circumstances, Maduro had himself proclaimed the winner by a servile National Electoral Council (CNE), without showcasing the records. Then he unleashed the bloodbath he had announced during the electoral campaign.
What happened in Venezuela was a major concern for the international left. One of its main allies, the “son of Hugo Chávez,” had committed a monumental fraud in broad daylight and was massacring the people. How could they tackle the crisis, so that the left did not sink along with him?
To address this issue, the São Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group deployed three of their key players: Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva of Brazil, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Mexico, and Gustavo Petro of Colombia. They took on the task of changing the narrative through their specialty: fabricating stories. They proclaimed themselves mediators of the Venezuelan crisis and began to divert attention from what had occurred on July 28.
The first step was to ignore the official records presented by the opposition and “demand” that electoral authorities present these records. However, they did so without setting a deadline or denouncing the CNE as biased in favor of Maduro, as the Carter Center did. This indefinite deadline allowed the dictator to crush the protests, instill terror, and order trials against Machado and González, forcing them to hide and isolate themselves from the public.
The second step was to convince the United States and Europe to wait for the CNE to present the records and not to recognize González as the elected president (as Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Uruguay had already done). According to the trio, recognizing González would “obstruct negotiations.” Furthermore, the trio played a leading role in sabotaging an OAS resolution against Maduro.
The third step was to try to ostracize Argentine President Javier Milei by expelling his diplomatic officials from the Argentine embassy, where six members of Machado’s team were receiving safe haven. Lula took advantage of this situation to assume their “protection.” Both Milei and Machado were compelled then to thank him for the gesture. Evidently, the Brazilian president could have demanded safe-conduct from Maduro for them, but he did not.
The fourth step, currently underway, is proposing measures to the international community to cover up the crime committed by Maduro. This could be via repeating the elections or establishing direct negotiations between the dictator and González, but without the participation of Machado. The intention of this maneuver is to fracture the opposition’s unity and stir up the specter of betrayal.
In summary, the supposed mediation by this trio has only served to give Maduro breathing room, paralyze the international community, and weaken the opposition.
The solution to the Venezuelan crisis lies in dismissing the narratives spread by Lula, AMLO, and Petro, and resorting to the facts. It is urgent to denounce the bloody coup perpetrated by Maduro, validate the official records available on the opposition’s website, and then recognize González as the elected president.
This self-appointed trio of mediators must be removed. At least, the mediation team should be balanced with other reliable negotiators, who can offer Maduro conditions to acknowledge his defeat and leave the country, guaranteeing his and his family’s safety.
Note from Editor-at-Large Steve Hecht: Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo’s call for a recount was to buy time for Nicolás Maduro to alter the documents. It was also the height of hypocrisy for Arévalo. The Attorney General’s Office in Guatemala to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on December 11 reported missing original tally sheets supporting about 2 million votes from a total of 5.6 million. This has not been properly addressed by the TSE or the Judiciary.
Alejandro Peña Esclusa is the author The Sao Paulo Forum’s Electoral Frauds (in Spanish). This is a translation by the Impunity Observer, conducted with approval from the author.
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