Venezuelan leftist parties reject the dictatorship’s fraud and repression

Statements by the Socialism and Freedom Party and the Communist Party of Venezuela

Note by Venezuelanvoices: The Freedom and Socialism Party and the Communist Party of Venezuela come from very different political traditions and have had different positions in the face of the Chavista regime. While the Freedom and Socialism Party is a trotskyist party, member of the International Workers’ Unity-Fourth International, with an important presence in the worker’s movement and historically a left opposition organization since the Chávez years, the Communist Party of Venezuela defines itself as marxist-leninist, it’s one of the oldest political parties in the country and advocates popular front politics (multiclass alliances as defined and pursued by Stalin and Dimitrov) since the 1930’s. It supported Chávez and the first years of Maduro’s rule, breaking away from the government in 2021. In the July 28 presidential elections, the Socialism and Freedom Party called for the null vote while the Communist Party of Venezuela endorsed Enrique Márquez. In spite of these sharp contrasts and differing political strategies and tactics, both organizations oppose the electoral fraud and the military repression unleashed by the dictatorship against the Venezuelan people and the working class, as do most leftist organizations in Venezuela.

Picture: AFP

No to fraud. We demand respect for the will of the people expressed through their vote
Freedom and Socialism Party (Partido Socialismo y Libertad, PSL)

The government, through the National Electoral Council (CNE), executed last Sunday, July 28, a full-fledged fraud. The institution declared Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the elections with 51.21% against 44.2% of Edmundo González, candidate of the bosses’ opposition promoted by María Corina Machado.

The CNE, after midnight, when 40% of the tally sheets had been transmitted from the voting centers, interrupted such transmission. Towards the closing time of the voting centers, they began to remove the opposition witnesses, denied them the tally sheets, in some cases this was done by armed paramilitary colectivos. Likewise, members of the armed forces took away some ballot boxes with the voting receipts. Six hours after the closing of the voting tables, the CNE issued the bulletin declaring an irreversible trend with only 80% of the tally sheets accounted for. Suddenly the other 40% had “appeared” to complete this 80%, without having been transmitted from the voting centers. In this way, the government sought to reverse the trend favorable to the candidate of the bourgeois opposition, which since early morning hours had been clear in most of the polling places throughout the country.

A fraud foretold

The Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL) had already been warning about the fraudulent character of the whole electoral process and alerted to the possibility that on the day of the elections the government would carry out a massive fraud.

For months now, the Maduro government has been deepening restrictions to democratic freedoms, while using all State resources in its favor and in an abusive manner. It did not consider requests for the legalization of political parties, illegalized others; disqualified candidates and political leaders, repressed and arrested activists and leaders of the bosses’ parties, and limited the possibility for Venezuelans abroad to vote. The independent left and opposition to the government of false socialism was prevented from presenting a candidacy that would represent the interests of the working people.

The majority of the Venezuelan people are fed up and repudiate a government that has plunged us into the most grave social tragedy of our contemporary history. A repressive government that applies a brutal capitalist austerity, with wages below 4 dollars a month and with public services, health and education destroyed. The repudiation of Maduro’s government was wrongly channeled towards the candidate of the bosses’ opposition, generating great expectations among the people for the possibility of putting an end to this dictatorial, corrupt and starving regime.

The popular indignation at the fraud explodes

The massive fraud carried out by the government has produced a great indignation that today is expressed with protests and pots and pans banging in popular neighborhoods of Caracas such as Catia, Cota 905, Petare, El Guarataro, Carapita, El Valle, but also in lower and upper middle class areas such as Chacaíto, Chacao, Altamira, as well as in other cities of the country. These protests are being repressed by the police, the National Guard and the armed paramilitary collectives acting under the protection of the security forces. As a result of this, and according to several human rights organizations, as of the time of writing this statement, between 6 and 9 people have been killed, hundreds have been injured and more than 100 people have been detained.

The Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL) categorically repudiates the fraud that the government intends to impose, violating the will of the workers and the popular sectors. We defend the right to vote of millions of people who demonstrated at the polls against Maduro’s government of false socialism, regardless of the fact that we do not support and in fact oppose Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Maria Corina Machado, and the bourgeois opposition parties.

In a press conference held yesterday, Tuesday, María Corina Machado and Edmundo González did not call for deepening the mobilization, they barely mentioned the protests taking place in the country. They did not repudiate the repression by the government and the paramilitary colectivos, and limited themselves to call for “popular assemblies of citizens”, lasting only one hour, and exhorted people to go home afterwards. Already in the months prior to the elections they made the people believe that only by voting could the government be defeated, they never warned about the fraud, today it is clear that they continue with their vacillating policy that favors negotiations.

It is necessary to give continuity to the popular protest, keeping us in the streets organizing the mobilization. The popular assemblies of citizens must be converted into permanent organizations of the whole community to discuss how to continue the struggle and organize the defense against repression and the paramilitary colectivos.

Only with the broad and unitary mobilization will it be possible to defeat the government of Maduro and the fraud he is trying to impose to perpetuate himself in power and to continue applying his capitalist austerity in collusion with important business and transnational sectors, hiding behind a false socialist discourse. We must continue to mobilize massively to defeat the fraud in the perspective of continuing the struggle for the workers and the people to govern, and for true socialism with workers’ and popular democracy.

No to fraud!

In the face of fraud, popular mobilization!

Caracas, July 30, 2024

(See original in Spanish)

On the presidential election

Communist Party of Venezuela (Partido comunista de venezuela, pcv)

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) calls on the genuinely democratic, popular and patriotic forces to join forces to defend the will of the Venezuelan people that expressed itself this Sunday, July 28 with a clear intention of political change in the country.

We alert international public opinion that just as the government of Nicolás Maduro has stripped the Venezuelan people of their social and economic rights, today it intends to deprive them of their democratic rights.

The denunciation of an alleged attempt to violate the electoral system by the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, far from providing the necessary guarantees to the process, deepens the doubts about the results presented to the country. In this sense, we demand that the CNE publish all the voting records ─as established in the electoral regulations─ as well as the maximum transparency in the scrutiny of the results.

The proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as reelected president under this scenario of uncertainty in which the results presented by Amoroso openly contrast with the mood that prevailed during the election day, is nothing more than a provocation that opens the way to the configuration of situations of violence.

At this moment, spontaneous popular mobilizations are taking place in different parts of the country. From the PCV we not only support the clamor for respect for the will of the people, but we also call on the military and police forces not to repress the people.

In these decisive hours for the present and future of the country, we communists ratify our conviction to build spaces of broad unity to strengthen the struggle for the recovery of the Constitution and the rule of law in Venezuela.

Whoever governs, rights are to be defended!

Caracas, July 29, 2024

(Original publication)