The Circus Is Coming to All Venezuela
that’s to say Venezuela’s parliamentary elections…
By Caridad
HAVANA TIMES – In a few days, in spite of fuel shortages and a minimum wage of less than 1 USD per month; despite the constant blackouts in the outskirts of Caracas and other states; in spite of the government’s silence about the genocidal way Trinidad and Tobago’s legal system has treated those who escape Venezuela; even with the starvation that continues to silently kill the elderly and sick; in spite of the fact that we are living in a never-ending lockdown; and despite everybody knowing it’s just a farse: elections will be held in Venezuela on December 6th.
We have seen everything recently in terms of electoral campaigns. Candidates handing out gas cylinders in Caracas neighborhoods, while people are holding protests that are being violently repressed because of the absence of this basic service.
Candidates handing out packs of bologna transported in fork-lifts or building trucks, because if there isn’t any fuel for sale, then the best thing is to do is prove this by not spending any fuel on the election campaign.
Candidates handing out sardines, this one is an evangelical pastor, so it’s like a theological metaphor for votes.
There are also candidates handing out large gasoline containers so that people can sell them and buy food. This candidate likes to play with fire.
Food for votes
The star candidate, though, has been Diosdado Cabello, president of the Constitutional Assembly. He one upped those swapping votes for bologna or sardines.
Diosdado is one of those men with unwavering ideals, with well-fitting trousers, one of the plenty of Cro-Magnons that still exist. So, he wasn’t going to step off his pedestal and ask for votes that he doesn’t need.
If he doesn’t need votes, the best thing he can do is humiliate people, right? This is what this great comrade did the other day on his platform in Carabobo state. In front of silent supporters who, crowded together under the hot sun, didn’t have it in them to laugh at his “jokes”.
“Whoever doesn’t vote, doesn’t eat. There is no food for the person who doesn’t vote. The person who doesn’t vote, doesn’t eat, and they will be forced into lockdown without food.” See the video here.
He began this paragraph by calling upon women, the ones he is sure will get everyone up at home to vote this Sunday. This is because it is normally the women in the house who are responsible for finding food to feed their families. Therefore, it’s the women voters that he can frighten or coerce with this issue of food, translated here as the CLAP food box the government distributes to its supporters.
After all of this, does anyone really believe in the elections to be held in Venezuela on December 6th?