It's been months since I posted here. I decided to focus on other things, specifically the situation in my country. I don't expect this post to be read nor do I hope for it to get voted, I just want to write again.
As some of you may know, Venezuela recently had an election and the regime blatantly stole it, but unlike the other occasions when this has happened, this time the opposition leaders accessed the official ballots and could definitely prove that Nicolás Maduro had lost pretty much in every parish in the country. I don't think there's ever been any electoral result in history that so totally gives victory to a contender.
This is especially relevant considering the fact that the regime didn't open the electoral registry for new voters to join the process, and prevented 99% of Venezuelans abroad (about eight million people) from voting too, so this already humiliating landslide could've gone way worse for chavismo. Even traditionally chavista strongholds turned their backs on Maduro, and when the electoral fraud (which we were all expecting) came, those same strongholds began a fierce campaign of public demonstrations and were repressed more brutally than any other place in the country, to the point that criminals had to take a side and began firing against security forces.
This was only for a short while, however. The regime imprisoned over 2,000 people, many of whom are still unaccounted for, and unofficially killed about 20 people in the context of the protests, though the actual number is probably much higher and couldn't be ascribed solely to protests. They actively persecuted electoral witnesses and opposition volunteers. They also annulled passports of people who traveled to the country to vote, political activists or just random people suspected of having dissented in some way. Therefore, people stopped posting about the situation on social media to avoid drawing unwanted attention.
The chavista regime, already weakened by years of their own mismanagement and corruption, is declining fast. They've been unable to produce proof to contradict their fraud, and the Carter Center, the only foreign monitoring organization they allowed for the process, has already pronounced Edmundo González as the winner. They've got nothing, not even their usual violent response is enough because there aren't any mass demonstrations to repress right now. And they're isolated, far more than ever before.
To be continued.
I was going to ask how it's possible to stop so many Venezuelans living abroad from voting. Then, of course, you get to
... and it doesn't seem so shocking.
Terrifying stuff, what's going on in Venezuela. Though what you said about passports being annulled (while also terrifying) made me wonder. Why? So people don't say the election was stolen. Yet I think of so-called democracies like the US, where you had a lot of people talking about how the election was stolen (both in 2016 and in 2020) and in the end, what they said online didn't matter. Similar in my own native Romania. Stolen election this year, people made a fuss online for a could of days, then it blew over. Nobody cared. Which makes one wonder, why go to such length to stop someone talking if nobody will care about injustice anyway?
I hope you continue writing as I'd like to understand more about what is happening over there, and I happen to enjoy your writing. Also, unrelated, but I was wondering if you'd consider answering a few questions on minimalism for the MINIMALIST community? I'm running an interview series on that, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. We could talk more about it on Discord (honeydue8397) if you're interested. Cheers.
Hey, thanks for commenting and for the appreciation!
Well, they could prevent voting because they control the consulates and embassies, and the electoral system too. In fact, the only reason the opposition leadership got access to the actual ballots was because they have a LOT of dissent within their own ranks and couldn't hold military officials from leaking this information through unmonitored channels.
As for why they'd annul passports and engage in other intimidation tactics, this is just what tyrannies do. There doesn't need to be a logic behind it except keeping people on edge, uncertain and afraid. Pretty much every leader in a regime like this is a sadist. From a psychological standpoint, they're also terribly afraid, they're beset by the very machinations of terror that they've created, and can't trust anyone, so that's what they project unto the public.
Sure, that'd be great. I don't use Discord, though. No matter how I've tried, I never been able to get into that app. We could talk over WhatsApp or Telegram if you use them. Let me know!
Yeah, I'm sure you're right. It's a fool's errand, looking for logic in tyrannies.
That's great about the interview! Let's chat on Telegram, maybe? I'm @honeydue9 over there. B&W profile pic. Hope we find each other. And thanks!
I thought the opposition was a woman? Who was that? And welcome back!!!!!! ❤️
The de facto leader is a woman called María Corina Machado, yes, but the regime didn't allow her to run for President, so she had to call in this man, a politician from the Chávez era, to run on her behalf. For some reason they couldn't prevent him from running.
Thanks, bro!