Venezuela elections come amid humanitarian crisis and hunger

Many wanted to believe that Cabello’s remarks before the vote were just a joke, but it didn’t take long for the message to spread among his most feared supporters, the armed paramilitary groups known as ” colectivos ”.

These criminal gangs plague some of Venezuela’s poorest neighborhoods and have played a growing role in keeping Maduro in power. In the neighborhood of Petare, Venezuela and the largest slum in Latin America, locals say that shortly after Cabello’s speech they started receiving threats.

“They came and told us a bus would come and pick us up, take us to the polling station,” a woman who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal told CNN.

“They said if I didn’t come I would stop receiving my CLAP box,” she added, referring to a box of subsidized essentials such as flour and rice that the Venezuelan government occasionally distributes. to the poorest in the country.

Why should we care?

Paralyzed by years of mismanagement and US sanctions, the Venezuelan economy is still on a downward spiral, mainly because the output of the country’s oil industry – which OPEC says accounts for 99% of its exports – continues to decline.

In the opposite direction, inflation hit 4,087%. Across the country, the dollar has now replaced the bolivar as the primary currency, and companies that once were afraid to advertise their products in US currency are now doing so openly. Even in the barrios of Venezuela, the dollar is now king.

What will happen on Sunday?

Despite its status as the only elected body to mount opposition to Maduro, turnout in Sunday’s election is still expected to be quite low as the main opposition candidates have stepped down and called on the people to boycott the vote.

They cite the absence of observers from the United States and the European Union, but also the ruling by the government-controlled Supreme Court, which removed Guaidó and others from the leadership of their own parties, replacing them. by lawmakers with known ties to Maduro.

“On December 6, there are no elections, there is fraud,” Guaidó said Thursday, calling on people to vote for his “Popular Consultation,” a rival plebiscite he and his allies are holding. December 12.

“Participation on December 6 is voting for a fraud; it is collaborating with the dictatorship,” he added, but recent polls suggest that his initiative should not attract a large turnout either.

Maduro, for his part, called on people to come vote, vowing to step down from the presidency if his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) did not win the election.

“I reiterate to the Venezuelan opposition, I accept the challenge, if they win the legislative elections on December 6, I will leave,” he said Tuesday in a televised speech. “But if we win, let’s move forward with the people to continue working and deepening the great transformations that the homeland needs.”

This is an unlikely outcome given how the beleaguered Venezuelan president put the odds in his favor, effectively eliminating opposition from the dissent and threatening the most vulnerable with voting on election day.

What does this mean for the opposition?

As Maduro prepares to take over from Venezuela’s last democratically elected body, it’s still unclear what this means for Gaidó’s claim to the presidency.

Almost two years since he began his path to overthrow Maduro’s government, Guaidó seems to have lost some of the support of many who still want the country to change.

“People don’t think he’s a solution,” a pro-opposition union leader told CNN. “And what people need are solutions.”