The Venezuelan people have ratified through the ballot box the path that they choose for the nation. They now resist the attempts of a cartel made of countries whose governments bow to the US imperialist dictates to delegitimize the electoral results of May 20th, because the result was of an overwhelming victory for the Bolivarian Revolution, with President Nicolás Maduro’s reelection.

By Socorro Gomes*

Democratic and popular forces in the country, in Latin America and throughout the world have shown commitment to the solidarity with the Venezuelan people, in defense of their sovereignty.

Although almost 200 international observers have attested that the elections were conducted with transparency and respect to every Venezuelan’s right to vote, foreign interference is yet again charging against the democratic process.

In a recently published communiqué, the international observers present during the 20th of May elections have repudiated the preparations for interference and the aggressive statements made by the so-called Lima Group, which is composed inclusively by illegitimate governments such as the one born out of a coup d’état in Brazil, Michel Temer’s.

We have denounced once more, in the document, the attempts of destabilizing Venezuela, which has intensified in the last period through a massive, media and economic offensive that affects the lives of the entire Venezuelan people and openly hinders the popular and national sovereignty.

The elections were held in a peaceful environment of great mobilization for the right to choose the course that the nation must follow. For this reason, the international observers issued a call for respect for the Venezuelan people’s right of self-determination. Such right cannot be relativized and the practice of violating it must the rejected in the firmest terms and actions taken by the democratic forces throughout the world.

During the observation, the international delegates were able to follow the preparation and auditing of the elections and of the very electronic boxes, as well as the systems of security and fraud prevention. The elections’ legitimacy, likewise, cannot be contested, since the choice is precisely democracy, while the reactionary forces’ is sabotage through anti-patriotic measures taken by the oligarchies, who reject dialogue. Even former US President Jimmy Carter, in 2012, praised the Venezuelan electoral system, and no one can say he did that out of sympathy for the Bolivarian Revolution!

Like in other Latin American and European countries and in the US, abstention was high, but this is not what would delegitimize the elections. Those who have exercised their right to vote, on the other hand, in a voluntary system, did so with great commitment, in a democratic environment. Therefore, although the “Lima Group” has stated, in blatant interference, that it does not recognize the results, several other countries have already done so, such as China, Russia, Cuba, Vietnam and Bolivia.

Investing on peace and sovereignty

It is clear which is the commitment of President Nicolás Maduro’s government and its contrast with the aggressiveness in the foreign interference, which does not measure the consequences of strategies of destabilization of a country to overthrow a popular government.

In his six lines, presented to the Constituent Assembly, Maduro prioritizes the efforts for Venezuela’s pacification. The second line is an agreement for economic recovery, since the country has been under heavy international offensive, with sanctions and a severe destabilizing propaganda.

In addition, his lines also promote a new patriotic and civic ethos, the strengthening and broadening of the achievements in the social security and protection system, the country’s and its Constitution’s defense, resistance to the imperialist offensive and, finally, strengthening the Socialist course with national characteristics, in the current juncture.

Only a few days after the Presidential elections, President Maduro showed his commitment to dialogue by inviting the former Presidential candidate Javier Bertucci to Miraflores Palace. On the social networks, he announced that that was “a day of meeting for the future, for deep dialogue and persistent quest for the solutions that Venezuela needs, in terms of the Constitution and of the country’s situation”. Maduro reaffirmed: “Our path is peace, dialogue, concertation, a national agreement for the way forward, towards the country’s prosperity.”

It is also evident that the Venezuelan people opt for and defend a process that can deepen the people’s democracy and the social progress yearned for by the peoples throughout the whole region. On the other hand, the government is presented by the monopolist media as a dictatorship and the country as drowning in social, economic and political chaos.

This is not the Venezuelan people’s perspective. Anxious to overcome the difficulties and strengthen their sovereignty, recovering the national economy under imperialist offensive, the people invests on democracy to participate in this construction. Resisting the artificial deprivation caused by sabotage, the population face difficulties to access certain products, a consequence of the economic war waged against the entire nation.

We must have the situation’s emergency in mind and transform the resolute solidarity into action, in defense of the sovereign and democratic Bolivarian Revolution. The country’s geostrategic and geopolitical importance has put it under the US empire’ sight ever since Comandante Hugo Chávez reached the government to launch a process with no way backwards. Daring to build it in a sovereign way, bravely defying the empire’s dictates and the enraged subservience of national oligarchies to the US agenda, with committed solidarity with other peoples all over the world and an effort for a progressive, sovereign regional integration with solidarity, the Venezuelan government is considered a threat to the imposition of the hegemonic agenda.

Therefore, in the struggle for peace, freedom, social progress and an integration based on solidarity and sovereignty in Latin America and the Caribbean, the democratic and popular forces reaffirm their solidarity with the Venezuelan people and their struggle.

*Socorro Gomes, president of the World Peace Council, was part of the delegation of international observers during Venezuela’s Presidential elections on the 20th of May.