With the Venezuelan elections taking place next month, I decided to interview one of the most prominent young Venezuelan leaders, Jorge Jraissati, via phone call during his visit with professors at Harvard University to discuss economic reforms for Venezuela.
Elections are scheduled for May and are already seething with controversy. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro moved the presidential and state elections to a date much earlier than expected: originally in December, pulled back to April and then pushed forward to May 20, 2018. While the move is being criticized by organizations aimed promoting transparency, meddling with elections and confusing voters is nothing new to the socialist dictator.
In October 2017, during regional elections, the Maduro regime was accused by the opposition of relocating more than 200 voting sites, delaying the opening of polling stations in areas saturated by opposition (claiming ‘power outages’), and even moving some sites into dangerous, high crime areas.
The other main candidate running for president, Henri Falcón of the Progressive Advance Party, Jraissati explains, is just an extension of Maduro. Falcón was governor of Jraissati’s home state of Lara and his origins within the governing “Chavismo” movement made him suspect among the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), which recently ousted Falcone for legitimizing Maduro’s “sham election” by running for president.
Similar to how the each state in the US can essentially operate as a sovereign entity, one might think states in Venezuela could do the same thing. Nope! Venezuela’s oil revenue accounts for nearly 96 percent of their exports sold by the state-owned oil company and “all the money comes to the Executive Branch so they have all the political power and can choose who they send the money to,” explains Jraissati.
In October 2016, attempts to oust Maduro through a recall referendum were suspended by the pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE), amid claims of fraudulent signatures during an initial petition drive. Prior to the suspension, opposition protests erupted outside the CNE headquarters after they delayed the announcement of the validation of signatures, a move considered by the opposition as a tactic to delay the process of ousting Maduro.
When asked about the referendum, Jraissati says, “the CNE should be an independent institution and not what currently is, just a mere extension of the socialist party. It is a shame that institutions such as this one, the central bank and the state-owned oil industry PDVSA, are controlled by the socialist party.” President of the CNE Tibisay Lucena has been vocal of her support for Maduro and former president Hugo Chavez and the opposition criticizes her for her support of the Venezuelan government.
In July 2017, Maduro unconstitutionally created a new political body called the “constituent assembly” that was granted to the power to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution and rule favorably toward Maduro. Supposedly decided by the voters to select its members, with no option to reject the process, it was just another “sham election” toward a dictatorship, according to Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN. The election results seem to favor all leftists loyal to Maduro including Cilia Flores, Maduro’s wife.
The constituent assembly has more power than the National Assembly. “In December 2015, we won two-thirds of the National Assembly, and that represented a clear mandate. My people demanded a change in the ballots, and when Maduro decided to use its Supreme Court to declare the National Assembly unconstitutional, that was a coup against our constitution.” explains Jraissati. This could explain why the National Assembly struggled to pass a single law in 2017—laws that could have lifted their economy out of peril.
“All the polls in my country say less than 20% support Maduro, but in my country there are not transparent elections. The regime does this because they know they would lose, so they do rigged elections,” states Jraissati. Furthermore, there are more people that don’t like Maduro we’re not aware of that are afraid to speak out “because there is a policy in place for everyone who speaks out against government can lose their job.”
With such looming consternation about the outcome of this grim situation Venezuela faces there is hope. Jraissati wants to connect Venezuelan organizations to an international movement for a free Venezuela so he is working with Students for Liberty in the US to form what he calls the “Venezuelan Alliance.”
The UN is considering observing elections based on a request from the government and opposition. However, other opposition parties seem to be so jaded by Maduro’s tactics to dissuade voters that they are urging the UN not to send observers to avoid legitimizing Maduro’s “sham elections,” which could grant Maduro another 6-year term.
As long as the Maduro regime doesn’t: relocate or delay openings of polling stations, intimidate voters, further override the National Assembly, rewrite the Constitution, kick journalists out of the country, dictate unlawful orders to local authorities or conduct compulsory electoral processes, having this UN electoral accompaniment could produce a positive outcome.
With the May 20 elections just around the corner, Jraissati wants the world to know:
“The international community already understands my country’s situation. In Venezuela, there is no division of powers, and elections are rigged. In fact, more than 50 governments have declared that the opposition should not participate in this upcoming “election.” This election would give Maduro the legitimacy he needs to portray Venezuela as a democracy, when we all know that my country is a dictatorship. Any candidate running in the election is playing the game of Maduro and giving legitimacy toward the government.
I just want to make clear that we are not giving up. We are fighting, and we are doing everything we can to make a change, a real change, a change in which our people can have opportunities and bright future in Venezuela. I do believe we can build a great nation, one in which every single kid has the opportunity to study, express their opinions, and accomplish his dreams, and that’s why we are not giving up, and we will fight until we see our country free.”
Nicholas DeSimone works in public policy for Reason Foundation in Washington D.C. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and has written for Reason Foundation, Townhall.com and Penn Political Review. Follow him on Twitter: @nickyd8181
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.