Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro won reelection to a third term on Sunday with just over 51% of the vote in what one group of independent election observers described as a “fair and transparent” contest, despite loud claims of fraud by the right-wing opposition — a narrative readily boosted by Western corporate media outlets.
The Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), Venezuela’s election authority, said Maduro won 51.2% of the vote with 80% of polling places counted. Edmundo González, an ex-diplomat and the primary opposition candidate, won 44.2% of the vote.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was barred from running in the election, claimed without evidence that González won 70% of the vote. Surveys conducted ahead of Sunday’s contest showed González with a substantial lead over Maduro, but Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) noted that “since 2015, pollsters have overestimated opposition support” in Venezuela “by an average of 29.5 percentage points.”
Nearly 60% of Venezuela’s electorate of over 21 million people turned out for Sunday’s race, according to figures from CNE, which faced calls from experts and political leaders in the region — including left-wing Chilean President Gabriel Boric — to release detailed election results in the interest of transparency.
The U.S.-based National Lawyers Guild (NLG) said in a statement that its delegation of five election observers “visited several polling sites in Caracas and La Guaira and shared notes and information with the 910 electoral observers present from 95 countries and many organizations, including the Carter Center, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Latin American Council of Electoral Experts.”
NLG’s president, Suzanne Adely, said Sunday’s elections “were not only fair and transparent but also represented an example of popular civic participation.”
“Their successful outcome is a triumph for the Venezuelan people,” Adely added, “especially considering the level of U.S. interference and attempted sabotage of the democratic process, particularly through sanctions and coercive economic measures aimed at producing ‘regime change’ in Venezuela.”
Speaking after CNE’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has “serious concerns” that the tallied result “does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people” — a response that drew swift backlash, given longstanding efforts by the United States to overthrow the Latin American nation’s elected government and crush its economy with sanctions.
As The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Federica Cocco reported last week, “Sanctions on Venezuela… contributed to an economic contraction roughly three times as large as that caused by the Great Depression in the United States.”
And who knows "the will of the Venezuelan people" better than the US Secretary of State? https://t.co/XLFDkaXOS8
— Venezuelanalysis (@venanalysis) July 29, 2024
Nearly 12 years ago, when Maduro’s predecessor President Hugo Chavez was running for reelection, CEPR’s co-director Mark Weisbrot reminded readers why the U.S. government continued to “demonize” the idea of democracy in Venezuela despite former U.S. President Jimmy Carter himself calling the Latin American nation’s election system “the best in the world.”
“In Washington, democracy has a simple definition: does a government do what the State Department wants it to do?” Weisbrot wrote at the time. “The State Department tries to keep its eyes on the prize: Venezuela is sitting on 500 billion barrels of oil, and doesn’t respect Washington’s foreign policy. That is what makes it public enemy number one, and gets it the worst media coverage.”
Important Message: Please Read
For 25 years, Truthout has survived by publishing impactful investigative journalism and analysis; distributing full editions 365 days a year; and building a community of readers who support us with small, hard-earned donations.
Eighty percent of our $3 million yearly budget comes from small donors alone. Of those, 8,000 readers support us with monthly donations. Back in 2018, when Facebook decided to suppress the circulation of posts made by organizations, thereby cutting readers off from seeing many articles shared by the news organizations they had intentionally decided to follow, Truthout’s total traffic declined by 40 percent, as nearly all of our traffic from that platform disappeared.
Now, Google has recently rolled out its AI search bar, providing AI summaries instead of directing readers to our site. Google Search is our single largest source of traffic; it’s the route by which nearly one third of our readers find us. Much like in 2018, a shocking 40 percent of our Google traffic has disappeared overnight.
It will not be easy for Truthout to shoulder this blow. Nor will it be easy for our peers and collaborators — news sites that depend on traffic and aren’t bankrolled by large corporations.
If you can support Truthout with a donation today, you can help us resist the AI onslaught. Please give today.