Who Did People Vote for in Venezuela?
By Caridad
HAVANA TIMES – With great fanfare, the regional elections in Venezuela were held on Sunday, November 21.
Elections that, as expected, were the opposite of what the Government promoted as “Mega-elections.”
We already know that the less strength or self-confidence a person has, the more dust they will raise on their journey, the more they need to attract the attention of others, the more bombastic the words we will hear in their vocabulary.
That is why Nicolas Maduro’s regime is an expert in grandstanding, which leads to nonsense, absurdity, and vulgarity. Because behind everything that is said there is nothing more than babbling, and he needs a battalion of advisers almost as inept as him to shape any of his speeches.
They continually need to put together an epic in which the only remaining horses are in worse condition than D’Artagnan (from the Three Musketeers) or Don Quixote’s Rocinante.
In this way simple regional elections took the pompous qualifier of Megaelecciones.
And what does this “megaadjective” really hide?
Well, the certainty that people don’t give a damn about going to vote.
Let us then disguise this generalized Mega disinterest.
This time the “opposition” did not decline the opportunity to join the electoral call. But, as we already know, the regime has dedicated all these years to eliminating every possible opponent from its path, both from parties of the right and those of the so-called left. And when I say “clearing from their path” it has been literally that: using all types of force.
Is the opposition that participated in these elections really sincere?
Many say yes, others no, that they are only playing the government’s game. There is no unity between the opponents, just as there is no unity within the ruling party, but the latter are well established in power. They control all judicial and military structures, and what helps them the most is a discouraged, warn out people.
After all these years in which surviving is becoming more difficult every day, the average Venezuelan has little time and energy left to devote themself to thinking about politics. They have already been repressed in the streets, harassed in prisons, they have also lost most of their job benefits, if not all. Public services are in ever worse condition, insecurity is as common as ever. No political party inspires confidence in themjk.
So: why vote?
One in five Venezuelans is outside the country. Many of those abroad do not have their identification documents in order. But for those who were in a position to go to the consulates to exercise their right to vote, would it concern them to vote for a government that forced them to migrate? A government not interested in your legal situation. That does not defend their rights against the harassment of other governments. Would they be motivated about voting for an opposition party of which they have little knowledge of and on which, I insist, the suspicion of an alliance with the regime always hangs?
Those who are outside the country, helping to sustain the economy of the family they left behind, care even less about helping the regime wash its face in the face of international opinion, which, by the way, during this pandemic has diminished considerably. The global interest in Venezuela has been far less.
Many regret the abstention, because the opportunity to retake governorships and city halls that, historically, belonged to the opposition parties, was lost. Those who lament the most about it are likely to have their stomachs a little fuller than those others who had no interest in re-placing their trust in a political party.
The worst of all was that a good part of those who went to vote (in favor of the Government) did so out of fear. And not for fear of being repressed, but to lose the “clap” (bag of some food products that the government delivers monthly or every two months.) Or of losing their job in the public sector.
These elections had only one winner: the clap bag.
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