Thinking Citizen Blog — Venezuela Matters (Part Two) “I Can Prove Maduro Got Trounced” (Anna Corina Machado, Wall Street Journal)
Thinking Citizen Blog — Monday is Foreign Policy Day
Today’s Topic: Venezuela Matters (Part Two) “I Can Prove Maduro Got Trounced” (Anna Corina Machado, Wall Street Journal)
Is Venezuela worth your attention? What are the lessons of Venezuelan history? Are all those lessons created equal?
Is there an “Alnilam” amongst them? That is, does one stand out above all the rest like the statue of Jesus Christ atop
Corcovado, the granite monolith at the center of Rio De Janeiro in Brazil?
For me there is. But let’s start with a story. Of a young devout Catholic boy enamored of Jesus, as champion of the poor, who embraced Marxism as the re-incarnation of the Gospel, and deified the heroes of Latin American liberation like Che and Fidel, demonizing the United States as the imperialist source of evil in the world. He went on to teach Latin American history at the college level. But a funny thing happened on his journey to senior citizenship.
The more history he studied and the more history that happened live and in color before his very eyes as the decades passed, the more evidence accumulated to confirm the wisdom of the quote “Capitalism turns luxuries into necessities, communism turns necessities into luxuries.”
Venezuela is just the most painful, extreme case of this universal principle. No, that’s wrong. Cambodia is.
But Venezuela is up there.
Today, Part Two in a series on Venezuela. Last week, we covered, very briefly, the stories of Anna Corina Machado, Alejandro Plaz, and Juan Guaido. Today, excerpts from an article by Machado in the Wall Street journal just a few days ago.
Questions: which wing of which US party has been the most right on Latin America over the last half century? Will this fact impact how you vote in November? should it? What would your Venezuelan policy be if you were president? Would there be a difference between Trump and Harris on this score? Does anybody know? Does anybody care?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
“I’M WRITING THIS FROM HIDING, FEARING FOR MY LIFE, MY FREEDOM, AND THAT OF MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN FROM THE DICTATORSHIIP LED BY NICOLAS MADURO” — so what? who cares? who should?
1. “Mr. Maduro didn’t win the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday. He lost in a landslide
to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%.”
2. “I know this to be true because I can prove it. I have receipts obtained directly from more than 80% of the nation’s polling stations.”
3. “We knew that Mr. Maduro’s government was going to cheat. We have known for years what tricks the regime uses, and we are well aware that the National Electoral Council is entirely under its control. It was unthinkable that Mr. Maduro would concede defeat”
NB: “The regime did everything in its power to sabotage and derail our campaign. Even though I won an open primary with 92% of support, it banned me from running for president. Then it disqualified my chosen replacement, Corina Yoris. Eventually Mr. González bravely took on this job. All the while, dozens of my colleagues were imprisoned, and six of my top aides, including my campaign chief, sought asylum in the Argentine Embassy.”
“THE POOR AND RURAL PEOPLE WHO FUELED HUGO CHAVEZ’S METEORIC RISE ARE NOW DISILLUSIONED AND HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF THEIR FUTURE” (below Maduro claims victory)
1. “We started this self-financed campaign in the periphery and moved into the urban areas. Our people were like a tidal wave. They are tired of a quarter-century of divisiveness, hatred, and ideology.”
2. “They want their families and dignity back. Organically, communities organized into more than 60,000 comanditos, small campaign units set up around kitchen tables all around the country.”
3. “More than one million volunteerstook on specific roles to prepare for the election, training to defend every single vote that would be cast that day.”
NB: “From the early hours on Sunday, we understood what the unifying force of this massive actiohn would bring. We saw turnout rise like a rocket ship. Minutes after returns began coming in, we confirmed our victory was overwhelming. And we knew that those who are in power, terrified of the personal consequences of decades of misrule, would do everything to hold on to power.”
“They did. They announced a fraudulent result at 11pm Sunday, indicating Mr. Maduro had won 51% of the vote “with 80% of the vote counted.”
“The truth is that Mr. Maduro didn’t win in a single one of Venezuela’s 24 states. This wasn’t only confirmed by four different quick counts and two independent nexit polls, but also by every single voting receipt that we saw coming in, in real time.”
“HASTILY, MR. MADURO ACTED TO NEUTRALIZE OUR TESTIGOS, WITNESSED VOLUNTEERING IN THE POLLING STATIONS” (below protests against Maduro after the election)
1. ”Orders were given to make their work impossible, to expel them from voting centers, to deny them the physical proof of the results.”
2. “These orders were disobeyed by the National Electoral Council personnel and the military.”
3. “Against all odds, our testigos protected the voter receipts with their lives throughout the night.”
NB: “On Monfsy morning we had gathered almost half of those receipts. By Monday afternoon, we had enough to confirm the mathematical certainty of our victory. The next day, they were uploaded onto a website for the world to see. Proof of this brazen fraud was furnished to heads of state across the world.”
“The National Electoral Council, which is mandated by law to publish these results no later than 48 hours after the election, rapidly shut down its own website. The reason, its members allege, is a cyberattack from Northern Macedonia.”
“AFTER THIS FARCE, SPONTANEOUS PROTESTS BROKE OUT, ESPECIALLY IN POOR SECTORS OF CARACAS AND OTHER CITIES, MR. MADURO RESPONDED WITH BRUTAL REPRESSION.” (below, a former idol)
1. State security forces have killed at least 20 Venezuelans, imprisoned more than 1000, and forced 11 disappearances.”
2. “Most of our team is in hiding, and after seven diplomatic missions were expelled from Venezuela, my aides in the Argentine Embassy are being protected by the government of Brazil.”
3. “I could be captured as I write these words.”
NB: “We Venezuelans have done our duty. We have voted out Mr. Maduro. Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government. The repression must stop immediately, so that an urgent agreement can take place to facilitate the transition to democracy.
I call on those who rejecte authoritarianism and support democracy to join the Venezuelan people in our noble cause. We won’t rest until we are free.”
CONCLUSION — what can you do? (below an alembic, symbol of distillation)
1. Reflect on the last 100 years of Latin American history.
2. Distill from that history the one big lesson.
3. Spread that lesson to all those you love.
NB: Help de-fog the brains of as many humans as possible. Inspire those with power to use it wisely.
Opinion | I Can Prove Maduro Got Trounced
As Venezuela’s Strongman Clings to Power, His People Pack Their Bags
QUOTE OF THE MONTH — Have you made your own Bible yet?
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
Here is a link to the last four years of posts organized by theme: (including the book on foreign policy)
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest or most important thing you learned in the last week, month, or year related to foreign policy.
Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in our life related to foreign policy.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is the key to depth of thought.
The prospect of imminent publication, like hanging and final exams, concentrates the mind. A useful life long habit.
