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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Campaign For Venezuela’s Elections Heats Up – In Washington<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img width=580 height=325 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D13011.C0F05C10" alt="Description: Latin America Venezuela US imperialism"></span><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/" title="View all posts in Educate!"><span style='color:blue'>Educate!</span></a> <a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/elections/"><span style='color:blue'>Elections</span></a>, <a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/united-states/"><span style='color:blue'>United States</span></a>, <a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/venezuela/"><span style='color:blue'>Venezuela</span></a> <br>By Mark Weisbrot, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/venezuela-election-us-_b_8691766.html" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>www.huffingtonpost.com</span></a><br>December 5th, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> Powered by <a href="https://translate.google.com" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=42 height=16 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.png@01D13011.C0F05C10" alt="Description: https://www.gstatic.com/images/branding/googlelogo/1x/googlelogo_color_42x16dp.png"></span><span style='color:blue'>Translate</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/campaign-for-venezuelas-elections-heats-up-in-washington/" target="_blank" title="View more services"><span style='color:blue'>5</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fcampaign-for-venezuelas-elections-heats-up-in-washington%2F"><span style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=23 height=25 id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image003.gif@01D13011.C0F05C10" alt="Description: Print Friendly"></span><span style='color:blue'>Print Friendly</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Above Photo: From PopularResistance.org.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The campaign for Venezuela’s Dec. 6 National Assembly election is only three weeks long, but in the United States it started about six months ago with <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelan-officials-suspected-of-turning-country-into-global-cocaine-hub-1431977784" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>leaks</span></a> by anonymous U.S. officials making unsubstantiated allegations that Venezuelan officials were running a “cartel.” More recently, relatives of Venezuela’s first lady Cilia Flores were <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/11/americas/venezuela-president-family-members-arrested/" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>arrested</span></a> and taken (not extradited) to the U.S. after being lured by DEA agents to Haiti. Then last week, when an opposition politician was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/outrage-after-venezuela-opposition-leader-killed/2015/11/27/de0b73a8-9550-11e5-befa-99ceebcbb272_story.html" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>shot and killed</span></a>, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, immediately joined Washington in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/outrage-after-venezuela-opposition-leader-killed/2015/11/27/de0b73a8-9550-11e5-befa-99ceebcbb272_story.html" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>trying</span></a> to make it look like a political murder. Within a day, evidence from investigations <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-venezuela-lashes-us-opposition-amid-blame-over-activists-slaying-2015-11" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>appeared to show</span></a> that the victim was likely a gang member killed by a rival gang.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>To understand the strategy of the U.S. government and its allies — including Almagro and <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34899227" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>now the president-elect of Argentina</span></a> – we have to look at what happened in the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election. In 2013, President Maduro won by 1.5 percentage points, but there was absolutely no doubt about the <a href="http://www.cepr.net/publications/reports/a-statistical-note-on-the-april-14-venezuelan-presidential-election-and-audit-of-results" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>result</span></a>. Because of the<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013510101743343447.html" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>extensive safeguards</span></a> in the voting process — including an immediate audit, with witnesses, of a random <a href="http://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/Venezuela%202013%20NLG%20print.pdf" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>sample</span></a> of 54 percent of voting stations — former U.S. president and election expert Jimmy Carter called Venezuela’s election system “<a href="http://www.cartercenter.org/news/multimedia/Conversations/30-years-of-the-carter-center.html" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>the best in the world</span></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But the Venezuelan opposition, not for the first time, rejected the result and claimed fraud, taking to the streets with violent demonstrations. The U.S. government, with almost no allies, backed the protestors by refusing to recognize the election results. The stage was set for increasingly violent conflict, but South American governments stepped in and publicly <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/22/united-states-contempt-venezuelan-democracy" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>pressured</span></a> Washington to join the rest of the world in accepting the results.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img border=0 width=570 height=380 id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D13011.C0F05C10" alt="Description: vote venezuela"></span><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#222222'>An opposition demonstrator wearing a shirt that reads in Spanish “Silence gives consent. Vote.” (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)</span></i><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Now you can see where this is going, and possibly even predict the near future. The Venezuelan opposition is currently leading the government by a sizable margin in most national polls — although this <a href="http://prodavinci.com/2015/11/29/actualidad/quien-ganara-y-otras-preguntas-sobre-el-6d-a-luis-vicente-leon/" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>appears</span></a> to be narrowing in the past week or so — and this is what the U.S. and international media have been reporting. But these polls do not necessarily indicate who is going to win the National Assembly, or by how much. The margin of victory is very important because, for example, a two-thirds majority will give the legislature much more power.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The government party (the United Socialist Part of Venezuela, or PSUV) has millions of members and has for years demonstrated an ability to mobilize its voters. The opposition has no comparable organization or campaign, and this is a non-presidential election. Also, sparsely populated (mostly rural) states have more representation per voter than those with higher populations. In the U.S., 584,000 people or so in Wyoming get the same number of senators as almost 39 million Californians. In Venezuela, there is only one legislative chamber, so the small states’ disproportional power is not as great as in the U.S. system. But it is significant, and unlike in the U.S., where the rural vote tends to be right wing, in Venezuela it leans more toward the Chavistas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The result is that, win or lose, the opposition is very unlikely to do as well as the national polls indicate. So when the opposition is “surprised” by the results, we can expect claims of fraud. If the last 14 years of extralegal efforts (<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/18/venezuela-protests-us-support-regime-change-mistake" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>supported by Washington</span></a>) to topple the government are any guide, the rejection of election results could turn violent. Last weekend, the head of Venezuela’s leading opposition newspaper, Miguel Henrique Otero of <i>El Nacional</i>, <a href="http://www.el-nacional.com/politica/MHO-oposicion-pierde-gente-calle_0_747525252.html" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>declared</span></a> that the opposition will take to the streets if they do not like the results.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img border=0 width=570 height=380 id="Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D13011.C0F05C10" alt="Description: election protest venezuela"></span><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#222222'>Venezuelans demand the release of political prisoners during a demonstration in Caracas in June, 2015. (Carlos Becerra/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)</span></i><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>From the U.S. Congress, the Obama administration, allied non-governmental organizations and Almagro, there have been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/venezuela-election-us_b_8554750.html" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>demands</span></a> that the OAS be allowed to monitor Venezuela’s elections. But it is very clear after what the OAS has <a href="http://www.cepr.net/press-center/press-releases/oas-overturned-haitian-presidential-election-in-a-qpolitical-interventionq-new-cepr-paper-suggests" target="_hplink"><span style='color:#03497E'>done repeatedly</span></a> in Haiti — including the 2011 reversal of presidential election results without a recount or even a statistical test — that OAS monitors cannot be considered neutral.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Washington’s current campaign is targeted at the Latin American and hemispheric media, in order to increase political pressure on governments to not do what they did in 2013: publicly shame the U.S. into accepting the results of democratic elections. There will be international campaign events, including U.S. newspaper editorials, Senate hearings and more, every day in the next week and following the elections.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It is bad enough that all of these foreign actors are campaigning in another country’s elections. But by attempting to delegitimize — with no evidence of possible fraud — the actual election results, they are promoting instability and possible violence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>