Hands off Venezuela
The Carter Centre which has monitored over 90 foreign elections, has declared Venezuela’s electoral system to be “the best in the world”.
Not just fair, impartial and transparent, but impossible to rig, making it more reliable than elections held in say Canada, the U.S. or the EU.
Each vote in the recent election was confirmed with a fingerprint, registered with an electronic ballot, then cross-referenced with a paper receipt, leaving no reasonable doubt that the people’s choice, with 67 per cent of the vote, was Nicolas Maduro.
Just as it would be absurd for any foreign nation to declare that Justin Trudeau isn’t prime minister of Canada, or Trump president of the United States, it is outrageous that these nations should unilaterally declare some preferred, unelected politician, ‘president of Venezuela’.
Venezuelan elite and their foreign backers know they cannot win at the ballot box; they are simply too few, and the poor — who have benefited so greatly from land reform, better housing, food, health care and education under President Maduro — are simply too many.
And that is why they cry foul.
Attacking Venezuela’s sovereignty isn’t about promoting democracy; it is about preventing it.
Shame on Canada for participating.
Hands off Venezuela.
Mike Ward
Duncan