Venezuela voted without incident and with contestation on the …

From Caracas

Venezuela closed voting in parliamentary elections on Sunday under cover of tranquility and a central question on full turnout. Many images of polling centers showed little influx, others, on the contrary, showed a normal level of voting.

Already in the early hours of the afternoon US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterates that it was not an election, but a “fraud”, and the right which decided to boycott the elections, that is to say the one centered around the figure of Juan Guaidó, affirmed, without proof, that the abstention had been higher than 80%.

During voting day, one of the most repeated messages, both by Chavismo and by the opposition that emerged, was the call to vote, regardless of political orientation, in a system where voting is not compulsory, and where, in general terms, turnout in legislative elections is generally lower than in presidential elections.

Participation has become a central element for the entire election, as well as for each political force. If, on the one hand, for Chavism one tried to show that he maintained a high level of social support even in the midst of different adversities, especially economical in a locking frame, on the other hand, for the opposition which chose to present itself, an attempt was made to translate its progressive political role in the debates into a role of electoral support.

In exchange, for the opposition which decided to call for abstention, under the international support of the United States, the Lima Group and the European Union, an attempt was made to show that the election had not social support and that, therefore, the only opposition is that led by Guaidó.

The results will be decisive in the construction of the map of internal forces, but they do not seem to bring the possibility of modifying the tendencies of the conflict where, gradually, the sector of Guaidó has been reduced, both internally and in its national political capacity.

What will happen to your interim presidential personality once the new National Assembly takes office? If it will continue to be formally recognized by the United States since it is part of a bipartisan agreement, it is likely that it will in fact lose what little centrality it has managed to maintain thanks to diplomacy and the international press.

There will also be a change in the White House from January 20, and depending on what has happened in various media and analysis, the new administration, while recognizing Guaidó, will have changes in the way it approaches the situation. in Venezuela, something that could translate into a possible easing of the economic blockade as part of a dialogue that could take place.

Faced with this scenario of internal reconfiguration, of a new National Assembly which will take office on January 5, former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero called on the European Union to review its position, and to adopt a policy of recognition of the Venezuelan institutionality, which, until the last months of 2020, it seemed like it could happen, but it ultimately did not happen.

The legislative elections in turn had a great continental implication, which resulted in the arrival in Caracas of Evo Morales, Andrónico Rodríguez, Rafael Correa, Fernando Lugo and Piedad Córdoba, who expressed their support for the electoral process and the Venezuelan government.

“These elections will strengthen democracy in Latin America, the elections are taking place in Ecuador, the constituent in Chile, the peoples are undergoing profound transformations, so I have no doubt that in a short time the times of Chávez, Lula and Kirchner, of Fidel , this is our fight, ”said Morales who, like more than 300 observers, visited various polling centers during the day.

The final outcome of Sunday’s session will then be decisive for the internal framework of the Venezuelan conflict, something that will have economic and international implications, all the pieces being interrelated. Finally, we are faced with the possibility of gradually leaving the scene from 2014 to 2020, marked by the attempts to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro by a right-wing sector, to return to a stage marked by the democratic-electoral centrality of the conflict.