Sunday's Venezuelan Election Will Shape Cuban Regime's Future
Violence reported across the country following signs of opposition win
Venezuelans holding the flag of Plataforma Unitaria Democrática’s (coalition challenging Mr. Maduro). Elperiodico.com.
Video of an elder Venezolana’s determination to get to the polls.
The polls have closed in Venezuela, but people are in the streets chanting Libertad and refusing to let the Maduro government steal another election. The leader of the opposition, María Corina Machado, went on X at 10:55 pm and called on Venezuelans to follow this through “till the end,” urging them to remain at voting stations so that “truth will prevail.”
The Cuban regime has had military and political personnel in Venezuela for years. It needs a Maduro win. That would mean a steady supply of Venezuelan oil at discounted prices, a vociferous backer of Cuba’s military and political influence in the region, and a partner to help it spread its—and Russian, Iranian, and Chinese—propaganda at home and around the world.
A win for the Maduro’s opponent, former diplomat Edmundo González, would end Maduro’s totalitarian regime, a dictatorship whose human rights abuses and economic failures have driven a quarter of the population to leave the country.
Venezuela’s once robust economy has contracted by 70% in the last ten years. Maduro’s human rights violations have drawn condemnation from the UN, which has accused the regime of crimes against humanity. Scenarios that, unfortunately, Cubans know all too well.
Independent reporting and polls show that Mr. Gonzalez won by a landslide. He led Maduro by 30% in pre-election polling. But it’s clear that Maduro will do what he needs to hold on to power, as he’s done in the past.
Like the Cuban regime, Maduro wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants Venezuela to be seen and respected by the world as a democracy, but he wants to control every aspect of governance, the courts, the press, “parliament,” the economy and, especially, the election process.
Members of the opposition have endured constant harassment. At least 100 people linked to the opposition were arrested before today’s election. The head of the electoral authority, Elvis Amoroso, a Maduro ally, denied independent election observers. Venezuelans living in Colombia who tried to return for the election were blocked at the border by the military. And on and on. This is totalitarianism. Total control. Of everything.
My prayers are with the Venezuelan people tonight. They are reclaiming what was stolen from them, and what so many of us often take for granted in our country.
I’m with María. May truth prevail.