VENEZUELA: MADURO WINS A THIRD TERM, SPARKING RIGHT WING VIOLENCE

Nicolas Maduro has been re-elected President of Venezuela. The US-backed opposition and the corporate media have claimed the result was rigged, even though over 800 independent observers were present to oversee the election.

ITS STRIKING that the very same people who rightly criticised Donald Trump's claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favour of Joe Biden, are the very same people claiming that the Venezuelan election was rigged in favour of Nicolas Maduro. And, like Trump, they have failed to provide any evidence to back their claim.

But, according to the New York Times, which also supported the failed coups against the Venezuelan government, 'the voting was riddled with irregularities'. What the New York Times doesn't say is that over 800 independent election observers were in Venezuela for the elections. That included observers from the US-based National Lawyers Guild (NLG) which has commented that the elections were...' not only fair and transparent but also represented an example of popular civic participation.'

According to NLY president Susan Adely, the election represented 'a triumph for the Venezuelan people, especially considering the level of U.S. interference and attempted sabotage of the democratic process, particularly through sanctions and coercive economic measures aimed at producing 'regime change' in Venezuela.'

The US-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has refused to accept the election result, sparking violence from far-right mobs. But the BBC presenter Christian Fraser has downplayed the violence, describing it as 'the people of Venezuela' expressing their dissatisfaction with Maduro. Meantime, RNZ National has republished on its website another BBC story that claims that the celebrations by Maduro supporters were 'choreographed'.

Unlike Christian Fraser, issuing his verdict on the election from a London television studio thousands of miles away, independent US-based journalist Abby Martin has reported from Venezuela on several occasions. She observes that the attempt to delegitimise the result of the election is yet another attempt to impose neoliberal capitalism on Venezuela:

'The cabal that tried to overthrow the Venezuelan government for the last 20 years, assassinate its leader and cripple its economy is threatening so-called 'action' for re-electing the person who won’t make the country a vassal state for Empire.'