As the sun sets amidst the mountains of Caracas valley, a young boy, sitting on his father's shoulder curiously looks between the images of Simón Bolívar and Hugo Chávez, two revolutionaries who changed the course of the region and spearheaded the movement to break the shackles of colonisation and injustice. Surrounded by tens of thousands of people from all walks of life on the final day of the presidential election campaign, the young boy with the zeal and determination in his eyes, like many, represents a generation that is growing under the Bolivarian revolutionary process.
What is the Bolivarian revolution? The answer to this question is there on the streets of Venezuela. An old man in his 60s, who had seen the turbulent periods and transitions of Venezuela's history, tells the meaning in a single sentence- it's power in the hands of the poor and toiling masses!
And this very idea, that stems from the legacy of Simón Bolívar and further realised by Comandante Chávez that today represents the paradigm shift in more than a century old struggle of Venezuela and Latin America to chart its own course and be free from the grips of the US imperialism. But this struggle comes with a heavy price, from US backed dictatorships to dirty wars in the 1970s to soft and hard coups of the 21st century, tens of thousands were martyred across the region in the battle for liberty and freedom.
"Cuba and Venezuela are one of two major countries in the region that represent this process of breaking the imperialist shackles, creating the process of Latin American integration and moving towards of socialism. That makes them the biggest target of US imperialism, with both facing a long history of assignations and regime change attempts, blockades and fanning of the far-right and oligarchy sections," says Cira Pascual Marquina, a Political Science professor at the Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela in Caracas and a political organizer at El Panal Commune, speaking to Liberation.
She adds, “the vast proven oil reserve puts Venezuela further deep in the cross-hair of US imperialism. These oil reserves and companies, once controlled by the US, were nationalised after Chávez came to power and revenue generated was channelised into massive social welfare programs in the country.”
July 2024 Presidential Elections
The Presidential elections in Venezuela were held on July 28, 2024 and the partial results (around 80% counted) were out on the intervening night of 28-29 July by the country's electoral body, National Electoral Council (CNE). Current president Nicolas Maduro of PSUV and Simón Bolívar Great Patriotic Pole alliance being declared as winner with 51.2% votes. The opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez of the United States backed far-right Unitary Platform (alliance proposed by the 2019 coup d'état organiser Juan Guido) received 44.2% votes with the overall polling percentage being 59%.
Voting in Venezuela takes places using a combined EVM-VVPAT slip process, where a slip generated from the EVM is deposited in the ballot box by the voter to be counted later. After the closing of the votes, political parties can access booth wise voting results. Though the final results were supposed to be declared by July 29 after the auditing and verification procedures, according to CNE, the final data couldn't be published due to a massive cyberattack on its electoral publication website.
As the counting process was taking place, the far-right opposition groups unleashed a series of violent actions, including arson and attacks on polling stations and symbols of the Bolivarian revolutions. And as soon as partial results were released, the opposition led by far-right leader of María Corina Machado rejected the results and declared the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the president-elect, saying he had received more than 70% of the votes. Machado is one Venezuelan opposition leader who is a signatory to the far-right and anti-communist Madrid Charter initiated by the Spanish Fascist party, Vox.
Even before the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela were released on the afternoon of 29 July by the CNE, the United States backed far-right opposition group had refused to accept the results. Their sole aim was to kill the Bolivarian revolutionary process that threatens the US's neo-Monroe doctrine in the Latin American region. The United States government and it's LIMA group countries also followed suit, branding the democratic mandate in Venezuela as fraud.
In the lines of the 2019 coup attempt by Guido, Maria and the opposition group unsuccessfully tried to provoke the military to organise a coup against Maduro, declaring that the military should “ensure the will of the people of Venezuela.” The far-right violence continued sporadically for a week, but later waned down amidst the strong popular mobilisations by Chavistas and people across the country.
On July 31, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro requested the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court to verify the results considering violent unrest in the days after the vote. On August 23, the Supreme Court verified voting data submitted by the CNE and confirmed the election results, declaring Maduro as the president. The SC also released the polling data which was under its custody during the hearing, and directed the CNE to publish the electoral data, which was being demanded by progressive sections across the world to ensure transparency.
Apart from the far-right violence, massive anti-Chavismo media propaganda was also witnessed in the region, with corporate backed media in Latin America, the US and the EU wanting to see the death of the Bolivarian Revolution. No efforts were spared to paint the elections as fraud and victory of far-right opposition even before the elections started. The narrative was painted about the end of Chavismo and Chavez's legacy before the elections to create a fertile ground for violence against the Bolivarian revolution.
Challenges Ahead
Due to the rising crisis in West Asia, it seems the United States has taken a U-turn from its earlier decision of recognising opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner and President-elect. Even the current phase of far-right violence has waned down in Venezuela, there are ongoing attempts to destabilised by the Bolivarian process by covert and overt tactics. The US led sanctions and fluctuating global oil prices also create an economic challenge for Venezuela.
Cira notes that the answer to the problems lie in strengthening the process of communes in Venezuela that had been the backbone of the Bolivarian revolution.
"Commune is space from which the society will transform politically, socially and economically, which means production under collective control. It were communes that helped people to overcome the 2018-2020 brutal economic crisis caused by the economic blockade. For the process of strong socialism and democratisation in Venezuela, the communes are not only the horizon but a pathway," said Cira Pascual.
