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Nicolás Maduro can further expand his position of power
© APA (AFP)
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro consolidated his power with a victory for his socialists in the parliamentary elections boycotted by large sectors of the opposition. Election official Indira Alfonzo said Monday that more than 67 percent of voters had voted for candidates from the ruling party. It is true that calls by Maduro’s opponents not to cast a vote were obviously followed by many in Venezuela, which has been plagued by a severe economic crisis for years.
The elections official said that only 31 percent of those eligible to vote had participated. The opposition had called for a boycott because, from their point of view, a fair vote was not expected. The Organization of American States (OAS) had already declared in advance that the conditions for a free and fair election did not exist. “Venezuela has a new National Assembly for the period 2021 to 2026. A great victory, without a doubt, for democracy,” Maduro said in a video posted on Twitter after preliminary election results were announced on Monday night (local time). ).
The parliamentary president, opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, in turn harshly criticized the parliamentary elections in his country. “The dictatorship is obvious,” Guaidó tweeted, denouncing electoral fraud. “We all know that the results were established in advance,” he said in a video he posted on Twitter.
With the electoral victory, Maduro’s socialists managed to reconquer the last state bastion in the hands of the opposition. In 2015, Congress addressed government opponents with a landslide victory. The president of Congress, Juan Guaidó, then proclaimed himself interim president until what he saw as legitimate elections. More than 50 states, including the United States and Austria, recognized him as the legal representative of Venezuela.
However, the new Congress was unable to implement any political goals, as these were collected by the government-affiliated Supreme Court. In addition, the Socialists created the National Constituent Assembly in 2017. This body, made up of representatives loyal to the government, is above Congress. In 2018, Maduro was also confirmed as head of state in an election not recognized by many states.
Maduro has so far been able to stay in office with the help of the military, officials from his PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) party, and the support of Russia, Cuba, China and Iran. The pressure to reform the country is enormous. The salaries of many Venezuelans are insufficient to cover their livelihoods. Since the decline of the economy under Maduro and former predecessor Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013 after 14 years in office, around five million citizens have left the country. Venezuela is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.
The electoral victory could help Maduro attract foreign companies to invest in the weakened oil production infrastructure. However, these companies must await US sanctions.The US special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, said in an interview with the Reuters news agency that there is a broad bipartisan agreement in the US Congress to maintain this course. This makes international pressure on the South American country unlikely to ease even after US election winner Joe Biden has taken office as Donald Trump’s successor.
The EU did not recognize the parliamentary elections in Venezuela as representative. The vote did not meet “minimum international standards for a credible process,” EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell said on behalf of member states on Monday. He referred to “the disqualification and criminal prosecution of opposition leaders.”
These circumstances did not allow “the EU to recognize this electoral process as credible, inclusive or transparent and its results as representative of the will of the Venezuelan people,” Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. The EU calls on the leaders of Caracas to “urgently” start a transition process and find a peaceful solution to the country’s political crisis.
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