Posted on 01/26/2024 7:29:31 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The second to worst worst thing that can happen to a civil society is civil war. The only thing worse than that is what Venezuela is living with right now, a dictatorship in which there is no hope of democratic change or equal justice. In Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela his voice is the only one that matters. It has been that way since he took over as the hand-picked successor to communist blowhard Hugo Chavez in 2013.
Since then, opposition figures have tried everything to get a fair chance at defeating Maduro at the ballot box and at every turn they have been thwarted. Some were arrested and wound up in jail on trumped up charges. Others were simply told they weren’t allowed to run. The latest effort in this long series involves Maria Corina Machado, a candidate who supports free-markets instead of the black market socialist economy which has resulted in extreme inflation and more than 7 million Venezuelans fleeing the country to survive.
Machado is well liked and last October she was the overwhelming winner of a 10-candidate race to become the main opposition candidate in the next presidential election. There was just one problem. Nicolas Maduro’s government had announced prior to the opposition election that Machado was forbidden from holding office for 15 years. Why? That’s a question you ask in a country that isn’t a banana republic. In Venezuela the only answer is because President Maduro considers her a threat.
Today, Venezuela’s Supreme Court upheld the government order that Machado not be allowed to hold office for 15 years, meaning the opposition’s top candidate can’t run.
The court’s decision bars the opposition figure, María Corina Machado, from taking part in an election for 15 years, upholding the Venezuelan government’s decision to exclude Ms. Machado over what it claimed were financial irregularities that occurred when she was a national legislator…
In a post on the social media platform X, Ms. Machado said on Friday that Mr. Maduro and “his criminal system chose the worst path for them: fraudulent elections.” She added, “What is NOT ending is our fight to conquer democracy through free and fair elections.”
Maduro’s government agreed to new elections this year in exchange for sanctions relief but even when the agreements were signed the government made clear that putting Machado on the ballot was non-negotiable.
the agreements signed on Tuesday, during a ceremony on the Caribbean island of Barbados, were vague. While they included commitments to allow international election observers and access to the news media in 2024, there were few other concrete promises. Experts say it is unlikely that the United States will fully lift sanctions if Ms. Machado is not allowed to run.
“We are going toward the supreme objective of lifting the sanctions,” said Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Venezuela’s legislature, at the ceremony. But “if you received an administrative disqualification,” he added, “then you cannot be a candidate.”
In addition to ruling her off limits, Maduro’s goon squad has also been targeting her operations.
Ms. Machado said that her campaign headquarters had been vandalized and that three of her campaign officials had been arrested.
The United States on Tuesday said it was “deeply concerned” by arrest orders and detentions against at least 33 Venezuelans, including opposition members, journalists and former members of the military, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia.
“We call for the end of politically motivated harassment, including attacks upon opposition campaign offices and all efforts to stifle the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people through fear and intimidation,” the statement said.
And that brings me back to the point I opened with. One side of this fight is trying to play by the rules of a real democracy while the other side is playing Calvinball and making up the rules as it goes. At a certain point the opposition has to accept that there is no free and fair election in Venezuela so long as Maduro is in power. If the freedom loving people of Venezuela want their country to be a democracy again, they may have to put a violent end to the dictator who keeps democracy forever at arms length. Its a scary prospect though because I’m sure Maduro wouldn’t hesitate to turn the army against his own people if he thought his power were really in danger.
What kind of country uses the courts to keep candidates off the ballot!
RE: What kind of country uses the courts to keep candidates off the ballot!
HINT: It ain’t only in Venezuela.
Communism: You vote your way in but you have to shoot your way out.................
What Venezuela, and other Marxist regimes need is a General Pinochet.
> Venezuela’s Dictator Nicolas Maduro Rigs the Next Election <
The DNC is furiously taking notes here.
Meanwhile, the GOP elites are at their country clubs, wondering if it’s too early for a martini.🍸
It’s what the Brandon regime is doing to Donald Trump.
“It’s what the Brandon regime is doing to Donald Trump.”
And the Germany Regime also doing to AfD.
“One side of this fight is trying to play by the rules of a real democracy while the other side is playing Calvinball and making up the rules as it goes. At a certain point the opposition has to accept that there is no free and fair election in ....”
Eventually this author will figure it out that it is not just Venezuela. It is the USA. It is Germany. It will be any Western country that has a non-Globohomo group ready to take power.
The same kind of country that uses the courts to enforce an invasion.
He doesn’t need to keep her from running, he just needs Dominion Voting machines.
“Some were arrested and wound up in jail on trumped up charges. Others were simply told they weren’t allowed to run. “
Sounds awfully familiar and close to home.
Joe Stalin said that “ the people who vote don’t count. It’s the people who count the vote”.
The socialist, New World Order alternative? Just don’t allow a vote to begin with.
War is horrible, but slavery is worse, and you may be sure that the British people would rather go down fighting than live in servitude.
——Winston Churchill, 1939
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
——John F. Kennedy
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”
― Mark Twain (controversy over his originating the quote).
“The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. ... It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club.
——George Carlin
RE: “We call for the end of politically motivated harassment, including attacks upon opposition campaign offices
Wouldn’t last 48 hours in the USA. Woke agents would crush that criticism-—to “save democracy.”
Are there any Venezuelans left in Venezuela?
A banana 🍌 republic.
Hugo Chavez stole his elections. He tried to export his Revolution over to Honduras His plot was failed. After the voting machines were seized they were proven to be rigged to support a Referendum designed to usher in a Dictatorship.
“Its a scary prospect though because I’m sure Maduro wouldn’t hesitate to turn the army against his own people if he thought his power were really in danger.”
Khadafi tried that in Libya in 2011 and 75% of the Libyan army deserted. He died hiding in a sewer pipe.
Side note for future reference: The two main sectors of the Libyan army that remained loyal to Khaddafi were senior officers and boots who didn’t know any better. The senior officers were heavily involved in stealing cash, gold and valuable artifacts. Most were hunted down and executed.
We attacked Libya with airstrikes. If it wasn’t for that, maybe the soldiers in the Libyan Army wouldn’t desert.
Libya’s army deserted and was effectively operational against Khadafi long before NATO loaded its ordnance on the planes. That’s what happens when dictator goons threaten to murder the families of soldiers.
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