Statement by the Committee for Revolutionary International Regroupment (CRIR)
Desperately attempting to remain in power through an electoral sham, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his armed forces are holding the country hostage. The National Electoral Council abetted the coverup by confirming the fraudulent balloting results on July 28. The regime’s chokehold only aggravates the political, economic, and social crisis long experienced by Venezuelans.
The Chavista regime, led by Maduro, and guided by so-called “Socialism for the 21st Century,” is a government that depends on the armed forces and paramilitary gangs at the service of the “boliburguesía.” (This term refers to the sector of the Venezuelan ruling class that supports and benefits from the Maduro government and the Bolivarian revolution initiated by Hugo Chavez.) Long before the U.S. economic blockade, the regime imposed the most stringent austerity measures of any bourgeois government in South America.
After declaring a Maduro victory of 51% to 44% over rival Edmundo González, the National Electoral Council refused to implement the standard procedure of providing paper tally sheets to confirm the electronic results. Analysis of a sampling of these sheets show that González won by an approximate 2 to 1 margin at a number of polling stations.
The rejection of the Maduro clique at the polls in a country with the largest oil reserves on the planet shows that the poor majority can no longer bear living under a regime that has devastated the economy. With unbridled corruption, the government has destroyed essential public services. Eight out of ten Venezuelans are condemned to hunger and poverty, and more than 7 million – a quarter of the population – have fled the country.
The anti-democratic electoral process resulted from a pact among the political actors primarily responsible for the humanitarian crisis ravaging the country.
Maduro’s authoritarian regime first struck an agreement with the Biden government. This consisted in allowing the pro-imperialist bourgeois opposition to field candidates and in providing greater access to Venezuela’s huge petroleum reserves by U.S. companies, with Chevron leading the way. In return, the Yankee government agreed to relax economic sanctions. Included in the U.S. imperialist deal was the promise of impunity for the Venezuelan armed forces and a commitment to guarantee safe conduct for Maduro and his henchmen in the event of a victory by the opposition.
Not mentioned in this deal of mutual convenience is the existence of over 300 political prisoners, most of whom are locked up for demanding their civil liberties and rights as workers. Nor is there mention of jailed opposition candidates from banned or outlawed parties, including those of the Left.
No negotiation – down with fraud!
Alongside this pact is the harsh state repression of those who took over the streets to repudiate the fraud in the election. The initial toll of the crackdown is 24 deaths and more than 2,400 arrests, with 95% of them coming from working-class and poor neighborhoods.
The ruling-class opposition to Maduro, led by María Corina Machado despite claiming victory for Edmundo Gonzalez, turned its back on the popular rebellion against the illegitimate vote count. It backtracked on its call to rise up and deactivated the street protests in favor of negotiations led by the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. In effect, this violated the right of Venezuelans to elect a government of their own choice.
What has become clear is that the support of the bourgeois opposition for a mediated solution means that it favors an agreement with the capitalist faction represented by the boliburguesía.
Aside from the struggle over the state apparatus, the common goal of these bourgeois forces is to extinguish any pole of rebellion with the potential to overthrow the regime and strengthen the struggle of the impoverished masses to fulfill their unmet needs.
By their intervention, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, reveal that they have the same goal as the above-mentioned bourgeois factions in Venezuela. They want to avoid having the protests of the Venezuelan masses serve as an example of how to resist austerity and corruption by all governments throughout the hemisphere currently in service of multinationals and domestic monopolists.
Besides the controversy between those condemning electoral fraud and those defending the victory of Nicolas Maduro, there is an overriding concern of every head of state, including the U.S., Russia, and China. All these political actors seek to resolve the current crisis through negotiation with a degenerated Chavista regime that reached its twilight stage some time ago, and now stands at its most extreme point of internal weakness and international isolation.
For now, Chavismo’s repressive state and paramilitary forces have regained control of the streets. They surveil poor districts and workplaces, with raids and arbitrary detentions, and now Edmundo González has fled Venezuela into exile in Spain.
Workers and the poor had no electoral alternative in the recent elections to represent their interests as the exploited and oppressed. Nor do they have one now between the two contending bourgeois factions.
The ongoing struggle against fraud and the right to a dignified life demands genuine independent, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist politics. The working class and the oppressed sectors need to take political power in Venezuela through their own democratic organizations.
To restore hope for the future to workers and impoverished masses, Venezuelan revolutionary socialists must take up the call to build a political tool capable of uniting the working class and the people to defeat the new and old representatives of the dictatorship of capital.
- No negotiations with the executioners of the workers and people!
- End all state repression and impunity!
- Charge and punish the regime’s assassins!
- Freedom for all political prisoners!
- Against capitalist dictatorship – for a government of the workers and oppressed!
Committee for Revolutionary International Regroupment (CRIR)
Partido Socialismo y Libertad – Argentina
Movimento Revolucionário Socialista – Brasil
Partido Obrero Socialista – Mexico
Freedom Socialist Party – U.S. and Australia
Contact: cririnter@gmail.com
