[Peace-discuss] Venezuela versus Haiti: A Tale of Two Elections

Sun Dec 6 20:04:22 EST 2015

Venezuela versus Haiti: A Tale of Two Elections

Venezuelans will vote today in fair and transparent elections. But you
wouldnt know it from the US government and media

By  <http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/keane-bhatt> Keane Bhatt

Global Research, December 06, 2015

<https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/venezuela-elections-fraud-free-chavez-ma
duro-haiti-latin-america/> Jacobin

<http://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-versus-haiti-a-tale-of-two-elections
/5494063on>
http://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-versus-haiti-a-tale-of-two-elections/
5494063on the sale of weapons.

Description: USA intervention Venezuela

Electoral
<http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article46
196945.html> observers who cover Latin America and the Caribbean see the
threat of 
<http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article41
860518.html> systematic, massive fraud in upcoming elections in a country
of  <http://www.thenation.com/article/wikileaks-haiti-aristide-files/>
longstanding
<http://www.mediahacker.org/2011/01/29/wikileaks-us-embassy-makes-its-case-f
or-minustah/> strategic
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/17/haiti-wikil
eaks> concern to the United States.

They
<http://www.ijdh.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/HaitiElection2015_NLG-IADL.p
df> argue that incidents of violence, fraud and voter intimidation have
created a process that falls far short of minimum standards for fair
elections. The president has been
<http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article43
666482.html> ruling by
<http://americasquarterly.org/content/haiti-back-future> decree for almost a
year, fulfilling a promise
<http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/his-music-rules-in-haiti-6360759>
articulated in 1997: First thing, after I establish my power . . . I would
close that congress thing.

A group of leading opposition candidates recently
<http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article47
129035.html> stated that they are convinced that honest, free, transparent
and democratic elections cannot be obtained under the presidency, citing
reprisals and repression by police against peaceful demonstrators that
left two candidates injured.
The United States isnt too worried about the state of affairs. In fact,
its invested nearly
<http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/5-things-know-about-haitian-elections-n4
51226> $30 million dollars in the elections. After all, this isnt
Venezuela; its Haiti.
Contrary to the distorted portrayals of Venezuela repeatedly put forth by
the media, think tanks, and the US government, the countrys electoral
processes couldnt be more different than Haitis. In Haitis October 25
presidential primary, over 70 percent of registered voters
<http://www.ijdh.org/2015/11/topics/politics-democracy/nlg-iadl-report-on-ha
itis-october-25-elections/> abstained, just as they did in 2010 for the
<http://cepr.net/documents/publications/haiti-2011-01.pdf> flawed elections
that brought Michel Martelly to power.

Venezuelas elections routinely produce the opposite result: 79.7 percent of
the electorate voted in the 2013 presidential contest, and even its
subsequent municipal elections boasted a
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10227> 58.9 percent participation rate.
Polls regarding todays legislative elections
<http://informe21.com/politica/participacion-del-6-de-diciembre-podria-super
ar-el-70> indicate an
<http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/noticias/actualidad/politica/76-de-electo
res-votaran-en-parlamentarias.aspx> expected voter
<http://archivo.globovision.com/hinterlaces-80-de-los-venezolanos-esta-dispu
esto-a-votar-en-parlamentarias/> turnout of above
<http://www.eleccionesvenezuela.com/noticia-participacion-venezolanos-elecci
ones-parlamentarias-2015-686.html> 70 percent, suggesting that the
Venezuelan electorate appears stubbornly unaffected by the campaigns of
fear, violence, and intimidation that State Department spokesperson John
Kirby  <http://time.com/4130344/venezuela-election-luis-diaz-murder/>
alleges are occurring.

Advancing the State Department narrative, the Washington Posteditorial board
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/venezuelas-dirty-election-approache
s/2015/11/22/5cd4bc7a-8d5f-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html> argued that
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will resort to outright fraud or
violence to prevent an opposition victory,
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/venezuelas-elections-are-fair/2015/
12/04/04efdc60-99fd-11e5-aca6-1ae3be6f06d2_story.html> ignoring Maduros
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11624> public demonstration of a signed,
written pledge to respect the electoral outcome. The International Crisis
Groups Phil Gunson likewise expressed
<http://blog.crisisgroup.org/latin-america/2015/10/13/venezuela-elections-20
15-no-room-for-credible-observation/> concern over unfair practices and
even fraud without the presence of international observers. By barring
observation from the Organization of American States, he
<http://blog.crisisgroup.org/latin-america/2015/11/26/venezuela-parliamentar
y-elections-2015-a-tilted-playing-field/> claimed, the government may hope
to obtain at least the benefit of the doubt if the opposition cries foul.

Gunson, however, withheld from readers the findings of the Carter Center,
whose former Latin America director Jennifer McCoy recently
<http://www.brookings.edu/events/2015/11/09-venezuela-december-elections>
explained at a Brookings Institution panel that the voting machines
themselves are auditable, have been audited in every election, including by
all opposition parties, and have not been found to be problematic.

Jimmy Carter has thus  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPKPw4t6Sic#t=43m33>
asserted that of the ninety-two elections that weve monitored, I would say
that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.
Additionally, Venezuelas political parties jointly
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22215387> audit
<http://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/Venezuela%202013%20NLG%20print.pdf>
54 percent of all paper-receipt ballot boxes immediately after the
elections, giving the vote count a very high possibility of being honest,
in McCoys words.

How high a possibility? The statistical chance of the Venezuelan
oppositions claim that the 2013 election was stolen was
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013510101743343447.html>
1 in 25,000,000,000,000,000. The United States took a gamble against those
odds when the State Department
<http://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-election-obama-idUSL2N0D219K201304
15> joined with the opposition to demand a
<http://news.yahoo.com/us-refuses-accept-venezuela-election-result-180604613
--politics.html> full recount. The Obama administration became the only
government in the Western hemisphere that
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/venezuela-election-us_b_8554750
.html> refused to accept the results, backed only by the right-wing
government of Spain and the secretary general of the OAS,
<http://www.oas.org/budget/2015/Program%20Budget%202015_V1.pdf> 60 percent
of whose annual operating budget is financed by Washington.

Like many similar US institutions preoccupied with Venezuela, theWashington
Post, the International Crisis Group, and Brookings have published no
commentaries and have held no events to probe Haitis election problems,
such as the more than nine hundred thousand accreditation cards that were
circulated and sold in a thriving black market for fraud,
<http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article41
860518.html> according to the Miami Herald. These cards made it easy for the
possessor to vote multiple times, and such ballots represented over
<http://www.ijdh.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/HaitiElection2015_NLG-IADL.p
df> half of the votes registered.

The State Departments Haiti Special Coordinator Kenneth Merten appeared
disinterested,  <http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/rm/249962.htm> simply
stating, We look forward to the second round of presidential elections.
The reason for the State Departments selective demands for recounts is
simple: Haiti is safely under US control, while Venezuela is not.

Despite their differences, Venezuela and Haiti have been linked together
over the past fifteen years as the two principal targets of US intervention
in the Western hemisphere. Indeed, the remarkably durable success of the
<http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/04/opinion/oe-sachs4> US overthrow of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 owed greatly to, and built on, the strategies
honed during the failed attempt to topple the elected government of Hugo
Chávez in 2002.
Foreshadowing its approach in Haiti, the Bush administration, according to a
State Department  <https://oig.state.gov/system/files/13682.pdf> report,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzSnH4_p0PY> trained and
financedindividuals and organizations understood to be actively involved
in the overthrow of Chávez, through entities such as the National Endowment
for Democracy, the US Agency for International Development, and the
International Republican Institute. The US
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06EEDE1631F930A35751C1A962
9C8B63> withheld prior
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/17/usa.venezuela> knowledge of
the coup plot from the elected government, while advancing
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/800> grossly exaggerated reports of
alleged government misconduct. And finally, the Bush administration
immediately recognized the illegitimate coup government while falsely
<http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/venezuelas-election-provides-op
portunity-for-washington-to-change-course> claiming that Chávez had
resigned.

In Haiti, the US similarly provided
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/international/americas/29haiti.html?pagew
anted=all> financing for Haitis recalcitrant political opposition to make
the country ungovernable and
<http://www.pih.org/news/entry/focus-on-haiti-the-road-to-recovery-a-six-mon
th-review/#farmer> cut offinternational aid essential to public health and
education.
<http://www.democracynow.org/2004/3/3/the_haitian_army_returns_who_is>
US-trainedparamilitary groups terrorized the country before the Bush
administration delivered a final coup de grâce,
<http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/paul-farmer/who-removed-aristide> spiriting
Aristide and his family out of the country on a US plane. And like
<http://monthlyreview.org/2005/09/01/hugo-chavez-on-the-failed-coup/>
Chávez, Aristide would remain
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/world/the-aristide-resignation-exile-the-
host-of-aristide-is-uneasy.html> incommunicado after his resignation was
declared. This time, however, the US
<http://www.democracynow.org/2004/3/1/exclusive_breaking_news_br_president_a
ristide> ensured that he would be held an ocean away in the Central African
Republic.
Most critically, after having faced a Western hemisphere united in its
repudiation of Venezuelas coup government in 2002, the United States pushed
through a UN resolution just days after the coup that created an
<http://www.thenation.com/article/10-reasons-why-un-occupation-haiti-must-en
d/> armed occupation of the country with much of Latin America
participating, as well.
By providing protection to the still-fragile US-installed regime of Gérard
Latortue, the UN occupation also
<http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/keeping-peace-haiti> permitted the use of
unmitigated force to quell dissent, particularly in poor, pro-Aristide
neighborhoods. Port-au-Prince registered roughly two thousand
<http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2806%2969211
-8/abstract> political murders a year, which was met largely with
<https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/06/human-rights-watchs-revolving-door/>
silenceby leading US human rights groups. After being frustrated by the
overwhelming  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvjIwVjJsXc> mobilization of
Chávezs supporters, who flooded Caracas and overturned the coup regime, the
United States learned its lesson in Haiti.

In intervening years, the US-led political management of Haiti has shifted
to the OAS, which is key to understanding todays elections in Venezuela. In
Haiti, the OAS
<https://www.google.co.ve/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUK
EwjTiOb7s8XJAhWIQyYKHWsPAzwQFggbMAA&url=http://www.cepr.net/publications/rep
orts/oas-in-haiti&usg=AFQjCNGuYwI2M5oFCYzdaSPxzK3bfZ8XcA> overturned the
results of the first round of the
<https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/haitis-doctored-elections-s
een-from-the-inside-an-interview-with-ricardo-seitenfus> 2010 elections
without any statistical basis and simply advanced the US-preferred
candidate, Michel Martelly, to the second round. The OAS similarly
<http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-332/15>
endorsed the results of Octobers fraud-riddled election in which Martellys
favored candidate performed best.
For these reasons, Venezuela  which the Obama administration still
officially
<http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/obama-absurdly-declares-venezu
ela-a-national-security-threat.html> designates an unusual and
extraordinary threat to the national security and which recently learned of
widespread National Security Agency
<https://theintercept.com/2015/11/18/overwhelmed-nsa-surprised-to-discover-i
ts-own-surveillance-goldmine-on-venezuelas-oil-executives/> espionage of its
state-owned oil company in 2011  has balked at the USs insistence that the
OAS observation its elections. OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, who
served as Uruguays foreign minister, behaved so undiplomatically in his
calls for an OAS presence in Venezuela that his former boss, Uruguayan
ex-president José Pepe Mujica,
<http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/article45462255.
html> publicly disowned him.
The concerted campaign to discredit Venezuelas elections consists of US
media, NGOs, and public officials proclaiming virtually identical concerns
about democracy while ignoring or actively promoting exactly the
anti-democratic tendencies that they profess to deplore in a country firmly
within their sphere of influence.

Latin America rightly sees this dishonest discourse emanating from
Washington as a component in an effort to advance a deeply unpopular agenda
for the region. Latin Americas long-held resentment toward the imposition
of that agenda has led to increasing rejection of a US-run multilateralism
that furthers US intervention. To that end, these countries have developed a
range of alternatives over the past decade: the Community of Latin American
and Caribbean States, the Bank of the South, ALBA, and the Union of South
American Nations (UNASUR).
The presence of the electoral delegation of UNASUR in Venezuela,
<http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/151117/leonel-fernandez-lide
ra-mision-de-unasur-para-el-6d> led by the Dominican Republics former
president, Leonel Fernandez, is therefore a sign of progress. Largely
fulfilling
<http://www.iirsa.org/admin_iirsa_web/Uploads/Documents/oe_cusco05_declaraci
on_del_cusco_eng.pdf> the vision with which it was created in 2008, UNASUR,
which excludes the United States and Canada, has rapidly displaced the OAS
as the regions preferred institution for resolving conflicts and managing
multilateral affairs.
Within this context, todays vote  whatever the outcome  is one more step
in Latin Americas ongoing independence movement

The original source of this article is
<https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/venezuela-elections-fraud-free-chavez-ma
duro-haiti-latin-america/> Jacobin

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