Upon hearing of the electoral victory of Nicolas Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela this Sunday, Radio Havana Cuba reached for comments by long-time Cuban ambassador in Caracas German Sanchez.

The electoral victory of Nicolas Maduro this Sunday is symbolic of the Venezuelan people's determination to stand in the way of a capitalist rebirth in their nation, said German Sanchez. Sanchez was Cuba's top diplomat in Venezuela for a decade and a half. Below are excerpts of his comments.

“In Venezuela there were many estimates, predictions, survey results, being discussed. What happened confirmed some of those predictions but was at the same time in line with Venezuelan reality, both from the electoral and the political point of view.”

“The triumph of Maduro is like a bell toll that points to the Venezuelan people rising up again, as they did in the 19th century, again under Hugo Chávez and now with Nicolas Maduro. The Venezuelans have shown that are ready to prevent the imperial cycle from continuing to expand towards neo-liberal capitalism, towards greater capitalist exploitation.”

“This a very significant victory, very important for the revolutionary, democratic political process in Venezuela and crucial to encourage progressive forces in our continent to not let themselves be subjugated or isolated.”

“There is no doubt that Maduro, who had admitted so during the campaign and who repeated it again last night very clearly and very candidly, there is no doubt that Maduro has realized, five years into the presidential mandate, that he was not so mature when suddenly he was called upon to be at the helm of a Revolution as profound as the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. So I believe Maduro when he said as he did after the Sunday victory that the naïve young man of five years ago is not the same Maduro of today, that he has gained experience and has developed a capacity that allows him to conduct the car of the Revolution in a much more precise way, without making the mistakes that he surely knows have been made over the last few years.”

“The enemies of Venezuela took advantage of the falling prices of oil, the absence of the historical leader of the Revolution Hugo Chavez, the inexperience or at least partial experience of Maduro, who had not been in a domestic post before, because under Chavez he was a brilliant minister but dealing with foreign affairs, so he lacked a knowledge of domestic affairs, the national economy, governance. So this is not the Maduro that we have now, as he himself has said. He is now better positioned to deal with the big challenge: the economy. Which is also related to the cleaning of corrupt domestic groups operating in the economic field and inside the very state. So he is now aware of these situations, he's been having to deal with them, and is now better positioned to be able to handle those and find in the mid-term ways out of the economic crisis they've fallen into as a result of the economic war being waged by the United States, the falling prices of oil, now undergoing a recovery, and the mistakes made, as Maduro himself has just recognized.”