Statement by the U.S. Peace Council, August 23, 2024
On July 29, 2024, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the presidential election with close to 52 percent of votes cast.
As expected, the US-backed opposition called the July 28 election in Venezuela fraudulent when they lost. They had announced that intention even before the election, as it has been their practice in every one of the 31 national contests since the Bolivarian Revolution began a quarter of a century ago — except for the two contests lost by the Chavistas, the movement founded by Hugo Chávez and carried on by his successor Nicolás Maduro.
In the two days following the CNE’s announcement of the presidential election results, Venezuela was wracked by violent demonstrations by the losing party. Some 25 people were killed and 192 injured, including government security personnel, and extensive property damage mainly on public institutions such as universities, secondary and primary schools, hospitals and health clinics, and transportation facilities were perpetrated.
This repeated illegal and violent reaction to election results in Venezuela is because the far-right opposition, funded and largely directed by Washington, pursues an insurrectionary strategy, rather than a democratic one. Neither they nor the US have recognized the Venezuelan government since Maduro was first elected in 2013.
The US bases its hostile action on the claim that these have not been free and fair elections. But if there is any unfairness in these elections, it is not due to the machinations of the ruling Chavistas — but because of conditions imposed by Washington by their hybrid war against Venezuela. The 930 unilateral coercive measures imposed on Caracas by Washington — euphemistically called sanctions — are no less deadly than bombs with thousands of casualties.
In fact, the Venezuelan people went to the polls on July 28 with a gun aimed at their heads, knowing that if they voted for Maduro the coercive measures would likely continue and even be intensified. This fundamental reality is ignored by the Western press and other current critics of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. This form of interference and collective punishment is illegal under the charters of the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS) and even US law. After all, what gives the US the credentials to be the world’s arbiter of democracy?
The narrative on the Venezuelan election has been shifted by the Washington and its echoes in the corporate press away from the paramount interference of US’s coercive measures into the intricacies of Venezuelan electoral law. The shifted narrative is designed to place the burden of proof on the sovereign government to prove its legitimacy. Solutions are being proffered by outside actors and supported by US president Biden for calling for new elections in Venezuela and establishment of a “transitional government.” There are no democratic mechanisms for doing that in Venezuela, nor are there any such mechanisms in most countries, including the US. More importantly, this is a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty.
The USPC commends President Maduro’s statement: “Venezuela has the sovereignty of an independent country with a constitution, it has institutions, and the conflicts in Venezuela of any kind are solved among Venezuelans, with their institutions, with their law and with their Constitution.”
The USPC calls for respect for the sovereign institutions of Venezuela, especially now that Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice has confirmed the results of the presidential elections.
We firmly reject all outside interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela.