Peace and Dialogue Won in Venezuela

By María Josefina Arce

Venezuelans went to the polls this Sunday in a general election that, since it was called last March, has been marked by an intense media campaign by the ultra-right, with the approval of the United States, which for more than two decades has supported all kinds of destabilizing actions against the South American nation.

These new elections were contested by 10 presidential candidates, nine from the so-called opposition and the current head of state, Nicolás Maduro, for the Great Patriotic Pole, who obtained a resounding victory and was elected for a new term.

The National Electoral Council, in its first report after verifying 80% of the votes and an irreversible trend, stated that Maduro obtained 51.20% of the votes.

The body denounced an attack on the electoral system that delayed the announcement of the results that Venezuelans were peacefully waiting for.

This is not the first time that the machinery of the most retrograde elements of society, supported by Washington, which insists on interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs, has been set in motion in an electoral context.

This has been the case since Hugo Chávez became president in 1999. There have been constant attacks against the Bolivarian Revolution and its social programs in favor of the humblest, always forgotten by the previous governments, surrendered to big capital.

Attacks that have been made in the more than thirty electoral processes that have been carried out in the South American country since that year, which have had a wide participation of Venezuelans.

Let us always remember that the right wing has always resorted to the tired argument of fraud, except, as experts recall, when the result was favorable to it, as in 2015, when it obtained a majority in the National Assembly.

The oligarchy has always conveniently forgotten that the Venezuelan electoral system has been qualified as safe and reliable. Nicanor Moscoso, president of the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America, reiterated this in recent hours in Caracas.

But they have always tried to manipulate public opinion and have left the way open to resort to their favorite word: fraud, whenever they fail in the elections. Even now, the Democratic Unity Platform of María Corina Machado, an advanced student of Washington, who promoted the candidacy of Edmundo González, who received 44.2% of the votes, has refused to sign an agreement that would recognize the results of the elections.

The authorities guaranteed a transparent process, which was confirmed by the presence in Venezuelan territory of some 700 international observers and 1,326 national and foreign journalists.

Likewise, more than 388 thousand soldiers were deployed in the polling stations to ensure peace and tranquility on the day of the elections in which they were called to participate.

Venezuelans voted this Sunday for peace, dialogue, the defense of their sovereignty against internal and external attacks, and for the economic and social progress of the nation.