Handbook for distracted people: the re-election of Nicolás Maduro was so legitimate and democratic

The worsening of the Venezuelan political crisis has generated in recent days a strange new situation which, in the eyes of those who do not carefully follow the path that leads to the abyss of the Caribbean nation, may be somewhat confusing. January 10 Nicolás Maduro resumed his duties as President of the Bolivarian Republic for another six years. Its legitimacy comes from the unusual elections of May 20, 2018, which the opposition, international observers and most western democracies did not recognize. In this context, on Wednesday, January 23, in front of a crowd that went down the streets of Caracas to protest against the Chavez regime, the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, argued that since the presidency was vacant and following the procedures established by the Venezuelan Constitution, badumed executive responsibilities on an interim basis to be able to call free elections and restore the democratic system.

Most countries in the Americas have been quick to recognize Guaidó as the only legal authority in Venezuela. The more conservative European Union did not reach this explicit declaration, but also moved away from Maduro and demanded that new elections. In support of Maduro, only autocrats such as Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan have expressed the few remaining members of the region (Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and El Salvador) and allied political forces such as the PT in Brazil and the Kirchner in Argentina . His spokesmen defended the political heir of Hugo Chávez as the only "democratic" and "legitimate" president" and qualify the Guaidó proclamation as "coup d'état"

While the debate on the most satisfactory exit for the Venezuelan quagmire is open, qualify the elections of May 20, 2018: transparent, democratic and legitimate This seems an unacceptable excess for anyone who respects the rule of law. In some cases, this happens through cynicism or pure political speculation. In others, by simple l & # 39; ignorance.

For those who may have been distracted and who, beyond the economic catastrophe and the exile of millions of Venezuelans in recent years, doubt the characteristics of the Bolivarian regime and the legitimacy of its leader to Exercise the Government, here is a brief summary of the process that led to the re-election of Maduro on May 20, 2018.

Persecution and delegitimization of state powers

Since the opposition won the parliamentary elections of December 6, 2015, the regime of Chavez, already in crisis, understood that the only way to prevent the power is lost repressive repression and dominating all the powers of the state. On the night of December 23, before giving control of the legislature and by a express procedure who violated all the administrative deadlines, the Chavista of the then-majority Assembly completely changed the composition of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) with the appointment of 13 judges and 21 substitutes loyal to Maduro. Then began a pulseada of powers. From the entry into office of the new legislators, the majority of the opposition has canceled the appointment of judges by their predecessors. Then, the newest Supreme Magistrates responded with a decision of invalid election results in the Amazon and ordered not to swear in front of the legislators of this district. The Assembly ignored this order and the TSJ declared it lack of respect

The conflict degenerated into a institutional crisis. Any law pbaded by the Assembly wasmpugnada by the executive branch with the support of the TSJ, which immediately suspended its application.

Meanwhile, the displaced and threatened supreme judges had to flee the country and started functioning as "TSJ in exile"

In March 2017, the TSJ chaired gave a ruling in which he took over the legislative powers before the persistence of the Assembly in the "desacato". The international reaction condemning the "autogolpe " and mbad demonstrations in the streets across the country (which left more than a hundred people killed by police repression), forced the regime to back down. But Maduro immediately released another strategy from the galley: the call to a National Constituent Assembly. Again, without adapting to any of the legal procedures to reform the Constitution, the President launched an electoral process contested by Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz, who, after receiving death threats, was seen. forced to resign and exile. The regime has developed a curious voting system in which some voters would be elected by territory and others as "representatives of areas" of workers, peasants, students, people disabled people, indigenous peoples and retirees. All to guarantee the triumph, although and all surveys showed that their support to society did not reach 25%.

The opposition decided not to participate in this farce. According to official data, he went to vote just the 41% of the census. In reality, they had been lessA few months later, the head of the company Smarmatic, supplier of voting machines in Venezuela, denounced in London the number of voters had increased by at least one million people.

Rather than reform the Constitution, which had already been reformed by Hugo Chávez in 1999, the Constituent Assembly has become operational until today as a Legislative Assembly.

Yes, in recent years Venezuela had two supreme courts and two parliaments. Just two presidents were missing. It was only a matter of time.

Opponents imprisoned or prohibited

"If you do not like it, come to the elections and win"The mantra with which populist leaders like Maduro tend to challenge their opponents comes with a trap in Venezuela: The main leaders of the opposition are prevented from presenting themselves, some prisoners, others legally barred from being candidates and others, in exile. This mania of outlaw opponents with possibilities of electoral triumph began in the time of Chavez and worsened under the government of his less talented political heir.

The most famous case is that of Leopoldo López, former mayor of Chacao and leader of Voluntad Popular (the party to which Juan Guaidó belongs), which was prisoner of three and a half years at the Ramo Verde military prison and that since 2017 continues in residential prison, prevented from participating in any political activity.

To the MP Freddy Guevara, who had taken the reins of the popular will since López had fallen into prison and gained his place in the Assembly, the TSJ lifted his parliamentary immunity on November 3, 2017. The next day, he took refuge at the Chilean embbady in Caracas, where he remains since then.

Since that same year, he has also prevented from standing for public office for 15 years Henrique Capriles (Primero Justicia), the man who was the closest to expelling the Chavismo from the Palace of Miraflores, in the 2013 presidential elections and after a controversial review, the official results granted him 49.12% of voice, remote from only 1.49% of Maduro.

The former mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma (Alianza Bravo Pueblo) was arrested in her office in February 2015 by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) and also housed in Ramo Verde Prison. Suffering from health problems, he managed to get a prison sentence at home and then escape to Colombia to exile in Spain.

All, like dozens of other political leaders imprisoned in Venezuelan prisons where they suffer all kinds of torture and humiliation, are charged with unfounded charges of incitement to violence or minor administrative offenses. Organizations like Human Rights Watch o Amnesty International, suspected of being functional for "imperialism", denounced their cases political persecutions. But his situation has not changed.

Personalized calendar, banned parties and no new voters

At the beginning of the year 2018, eight elections were scheduled in the Latin American calendar: five presidential and three legislative elections. The Venezuelan president was one of the only ones not to know the date. Maduro speculated until the end. The logic indicated that this should be in the last quarter of the year, since the end of his term was January 10. But after his "successful" experience in the municipal elections in late 2017, in which he again managed to manipulate the controls, veto the candidacies and prevent most opponents from participating, he decided to hasten things . The National Electoral Council (CNE), fully co-opted by Chavismo, announced on February 7 that the elections would take place 74 days later, on April 22. After the demonstrations, he agreed to postpone the date until May 20. Nevertheless, the weather was very short. Even more when they put on the road a thousand and one bureaucratic obstacles to validate lists and applications.

It was no longer enough to outlaw opposition leaders with greater electoral power, the Constituent Assembly said. remove the legal status of all parties that did not participate in municipal elections and to revalidate their legality, they had to present in a few weeks the signatures of at least 5% of the electoral lists, an engineering impossible to face in a collapsed Venezuela, where the Chavist self-defense groups dominate the neighborhoods . So, they stayed the ballot papers of Voluntad Popular, Primero Justicia and Mesa de Unidad Democrática, the winning alliance in the 2015 parliamentary elections.

In addition, the CNE only 20 days to register new electors who were not registered, which included for the first time nearly two million young people of voting age and a similar number of exiles who had to validate their new address before the embbadies. Both were strong nuclei antichavistas and most of them did not register.

Control, control and extortion

On election day, the only two opponents of the ruling party were those of former Chavist Henri Falcón and Evangelical pastor Javier Bertucci, two smaller candidates adapted to Madurowhich, according to the CNE, had presented the millions of guarantees necessary to participate in the contest.

Neither the OAS nor the Carter Center, who are generally observers of electoral processes across the continent, had this time the power to do so. Neither the Venezuelan electoral observatory. No renowned national or international organization has validated the elections in Venezuela. The only checks were made in the so-called "red spots", tents that the government gathers near the voting centers, to keep track of the citizens who will vote with their"Patria's notebook", the new identity document that distributes Chavism to those who receive state aid." The extortion is not even hidden: "Whoever voted with his country card will receive a prize from the Republic", usually warns the president a few days before the elections.

Despite this, the polling centers remained almost deserted during this Sunday, May 20th. Official figures showed a 46% stake (for unlikely observers it was about half), but despite that, it would be a fall of 33%. , 6% compared to previous presidential elections.

In these conditions, banned the most important rival candidates, banned the most important opposition parties, controlled and intimidated voters and without the elections, Maduro would have obtained 6.2 million votes, according to official results, between 20.5 millions of Venezuelans who could pay.

It is how the elections were dedicated to democracy.

That is the legitimacy of your presidency.