Opposition Defeats “Chavismo” in Venezuela
HAVANA TIMES — Venezuela’s opposition secured a resounding victory yesterday at the legislative elections, obtaining a majority for the 2016-2021 term and ending the hegemony at the legislature maintained by supporters of Hugo Chavez and his hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro over the past 17 years.
The Mesa de la Unidad Democratica (“Democratic Unity Roundtable”, or MUD) obtained 99 seats at the National Assembly, well above the 46 to be occupied by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), chair of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Tibisay Lucena announced after 96.03 percent of results had been analyzed.
An additional 19 seats are still to be defined, as are three representatives of indigenous communities. Whether the opposition will have an absolute majority will depend on the outstanding results.
“The change has begun, Venezuela!” MUD executive secretary Jesus “Chuo” Torrealaba announced after the official figures were made known.
“Today, we have cause for celebration. The country asked for a change and that change begins now. Our votes managed to democratically defeat a government that is not democratic,” Torrealba stated at his party venue.
The favorable results secured by the opposition represent an unprecedented victory in nearly 17 years of Bolivarian government.
The elections for the 167 seats at the National Assembly were conducted in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility and were only altered by an extension of the voting deadline at electoral locales, a move that vexed the opposition, which believed the move a maneuver by government forces to collect additional votes before the end of the day.
“We won, Venezuela! We’ve always said this was the way! Humility, maturity and clear-mindedness. Long live the people of Venezuela!” opposition leader Henrique Capriles wrote on Twitter.
President Nicolas Maduro offered a televised press conference immediately after the figures were announced. There, he acknowledged the PSUV’s defeat and spoke of the “triumph of democracy.”
“We’ve come with our morals, our ethics, to acknowledge these negative results, to accept them, and to say that democracy has triumphed,” the Venezuelan leader declared.
He insisted, however, that the triumph of the opposition was sustained by a “disloyal” campaign and an “economic war” which led to powerful inflation and consumer product shortages.
“The economic war has triumphed, a strategy to undermine our collective confidence in the country’s project has triumphed, the state of need created by a policy of savage capitalism, of hoarding products and making them more expensive, has circumstantially triumphed,” he charged.
Though the totality of the results have not yet been revealed, the MUD stated it expects to secure a more solid majority of as many as 113 seats, leaving government forces with a mere 54 representatives.
The results presented by the CNE revealed “crushing defeat for the government and a clear victory for the opposition,” the MUD declared.
The CNE announced that the seats still to be announced correspond to the states of Amazonas, Aragua, Carabobo, Guarico, Lara and Monagas. It stated that regional electoral boards will be responsible for announcing the results when irreversible trends become evident. This includes district number one in the east-laying state of Monagas, where the current chair of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, was seeking reelection.
Opposition leader Torrealba celebrated the victory, declaring that “Venezuela is at peace again. We will administer our victory properly and won’t attack anyone. Today, all of this changed and now the National Assembly is controlled by the people’s representatives. This is a real victory for those who have been persecuted, imprisoned and silenced.”
Official figures reveal that the MUD secured 72 nominal seats (through individual elections) and 27 seats under party lists, while the governing PSUV obtained 24 nominal and 22 party list seats.
The number of MUD representatives represents a simple majority in the Chamber, which will resume sessions on January 5.
As much as 74.25 % of the population voted for the two contending fronts: the PSUV and the MUD, which gathered some 30 opposition groups.
According to Torrealba, the results send a clear message to the government that the country is tired of “suffering the consequences of their failure.”
Moses Patterson
if I am not mistaken the image that you are using is the photo of Frederick Douglass one of the earliest icons in emancipation antislavery and freedom , he is someone who did his best to wake up the conscious of humanity to the evils of slavery , yet here you are using that image to promote you’re twisted capitalist point of view hateful and ignorant ,
considering that you are calling for a disaster to be inflicted on the Cuban people , through adopting an American way of doing business ,
Cuban people need little more time to cope with the new realities , they cannot simply shift into high gear and cruise down the road , if that is allowed to happens it is going to inflict all the social upheaval that we see in American society , each night I watch the news from Fort Myers and just about every night the beginning with the homoside , someone shot someone or a drug bust somewhere ,please leave the Cuban people to their senses they we’ll figure it out without you help
I’m not sure what your point is. Maduro has vowed to campaign against the right wing’s plan for an amnesty for people convicted of violent crime. That’s his right. Venezuela is still going to be a highly polarized society as he says. What has any of this got to do with my post?
Maduro said: “We’re facing a large-scale crisis that is going to generate a power struggle between two poles: the patriots and the anti-patriots,” Maduro said in a speech to the military. “A conflict which is going to create big tensions … It’s a counter-revolutionary crisis.” Maduro vowed to fight the legislature at every step.
Doesn’t seem to be much interested in the will of the people Dan. It’s not as like this was a close election. It was an overwhelming victory of the Maduro government.
It’s simple nidale, even for you. The Venezuelan electorate, despite all the hurdles thrown their way, overwhelmingly rejected the Madiro Chavista government by democratically voting in a new legislature by an overwhelming margine. That nidal, is will of the Venezuelan people.
Wrong on all counts nidal. You had best check it out. And while you are at it please look up the definition of genocide so you can use it properly next time. As quoted in the movie, The Princes Bride, by the swordsman Inigo Montoya…”I don’t think that word means what you think it means”
It is noticeable when Maduro loses the election he is graceful in defeat. When the right wing loses they organise riots, coups, violence and economic warfare. Not to mention contesting the result. It shows who really are the Democrats.
please explain what do you mean by defending their privileges against the verdict of the people ,to the best of my knowledge president Chavez and president Maduro where democratically elected ,
maybe there is something that I missed over here , are you talking about the will of the people that only the United States recognized ?
I am sure you know about the US and their point of view about South America being there backyard subsidiary of corporate America , haven’t you people have enough banana republics ? haven’t the US inflict enough misery and genocide all over South America ?
the highway of death was an act of genocide , considering that they give the green light to the Iraqis for retreat , Iraqis were retreating with the wife children ,the USA committed genocide a war crime by old definitions, under international law a recruiting army walking away from the battlefield cannot be attacked ,
but then this is the US mentality you trying to force all over humanity on Venezuela Cuba and everybody else a genocidal mentality , for the so-called US national interest the willing to commit war crimes and genocide anywhere , that’s why someone like Fidel Castro becomes a hero he stood up in front off the mentality of the evil empire
Yes I remember the “highway of death” where US air power decimated Iraqi troops fleeing with stolen loot in their military vehicles. Terrible military discipline on their part ….they were fair game in an active war zone. It was awesome stuff! But nidal, what the heck does that have to do with anything in these pages, of your original comment? You have a penchant for going all over the map with your comments. Please stay on topic.
The only way for oil to be of any benefit to Venezuela is if they sell it to Csitapist America. The USA is Venezuelas largest customer when it comes to buying oil and that is unlikely to change. Venezuela actually needs support in the form of monitory investment, technical know how and parts from the U.S. to rescue their moribund petroleum industry. ….That means wallstreet baby!
I think you need to educate yourself little more in history before giving your opinions , where do you get your history from so-called Fox News , are you talking about Saddam Hussein before the Americans destroyed Iraq under George Bush Senior ?
do you remember the highway of death ?
prior to Gulf War 1 Iraqis used to be the least likely Arabs to emigrate out of Iraq , the second heart transplant in the world happened in the Iraq , there was genuine science and advancement in a semi socialist secular society .
I could go on and on and on the fact remains that the Iraqis had free education free healthcare and there was peace in semi socialist secular society ,
unfortunately Iraq oil was a blessing and the US turned it into curse , I hope the same thing does not happen in Venezuela or anywhere else equal to what the Americans did on Iraq ,
I think you need to research into what happening to Iraqi oil revenue right now , it is embezzled right left and center , I fear that the same thing will take place in Venezuela if the capitalist seize control of the country.
Venezuela is sitting on a huge amount of oil , I personally would rather see the Venezuelans benefits from it then to see Wall Street and capitalist parasites suck the life blood out of Venezuela .
look at what happened to Argentina overnight they set the economy back by 40% , all what they did is beg money and take it out of the country , absolutely heartless criminals ,is that’s the kind of capitalist you want to control the Venezuelan oil ?
Venezuelans need to organize as many unions as they could possibly organize ,
for those of you who have the foul language mouth , can’t y’all argue competently without insults ?
or are you someone’s lap dog on a short leash ?
Is that the same American garbage/basura that has sustained you since you left that paradigm of civility where you are from, Palestine?
Your habit of introducing irrelevant topics to these pages are rather disconcerting! Regardless, your knowledge of the world is somewhat stilted. The Ba’ath Party / Revolutionary Command Council, run under the authoritarian rule of Saddam and his ruthless sick little sons, was a hybrid totalitarian system. And thankfully the Venezuelan people don’t agree with your rather strange world view, as they have so ably demonstrated during these past elections, which overwhelmingly voted for the opposition, in-spite of all the obstacles and hurdles thrown their way.
Excuse me Nidal, but what is socialist about Maduro and his entourage defending their privileges against the verdict of the people?
what you have is an undeclared Cold War against anything socialist , the same thing happened to the Iraqis , Iraq was socialist society with free education health care to the point in which the Iraqis where the best educated Arabs in the Middle East ,the US starving them to death for 10 years before they went in and committed genocide , what do we have now under the so-called free enterprise ? assistants murders genocide fundamentalist degraded environment , the average American is educated to or under 9th grade , capitalist system equals the law of the jungle , in my opinion the Venezuelan people need to look for answers that will coexist peacefully to there unique society and country , it is a mistake to import American garbage/basura .
….sorry, this comment was meant @ nidal
Under the Cuban or Venezuelan system Ypu wake up to a lack of toilet paper, chicken, eggs, arina, etc. if that was so desirable, why the landslide victory of the right?
CEO raised price of old pill to more than $700
this is the kind of headlines that we wake up to in the capitalist system , capitalism is a system managed by a bunch of sociopathic individuals whom or what they care about is money , if you think you have it bad right now wait until you experience capitalist system ,there’s no other alternative than a competent socialist system , look around you ? they made life difficult to the point where the system’s about to shut down , capitalism is more interested in slavery then freedom ,does any of you think that the capitalist Americans will allow any international observers to observe American elections ?
again be careful what you wish for it might come true ,
this election goes to show that president Chavez was one in a million , as we say in the Middle East one man count more than a thousand and thousand men add up to nothing ,
wish you all the best of luck and I will tell you all that the USA is an enemy not a friend
The hard part is what to do now to stop the economic disaster. Madura should try to be constructive.
Congrats to the people of Venezuela who voted either for or against change. I hope folks like Elian Gonzalez and Elio Delgado Legon understand how significant it is when the people make the decisions as
to who will run their government. So simple yet so foreign to some!
I just had a look at the Cubavision website. The word Venezuela does not appear at all. I have never liked Maduro but a multiparty election took place and in spite of everything the Chavistas could not trick their way to victory. When they lost local authorities such as Caracas they took away their money and power or arrested the mayor. Let’s see what happens with the national assembly. Of course there remains one government in the whole of the Americas that does not bother with opposition parties. It would be interesting to see how much or how little of what Telesur shows will be shown on Cuban television. Who in Cuba is afraid of the triumph of democracy?
Good news for Venezuela. The Castros obviously didn’t see this coming. Next, Rousseff en Brazil.