The Venezuela Solidarity Campaign hosted Francisco Dominguez, secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign in London at a forum on August 14 to discuss the Venezuelan presidential elections held on July 28.
Dominguez, an election observer, said the day of voting was peaceful but when the National Electoral Council (NEC) announced that President Nicolas Maduro had won, widespread violence began.
The extreme right-wing opposition claimed that their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had won and overwhelmingly.
Their claim that the NEC’s results had been falsified was the pretext for violence in which 25 people were killed.
Dominguez spoke about how, for several years, Venezeula’s economy had been recovering after a severe decline — the result of US sanctions. For several months there has been a global media campaign saying that if Maduro won, the result would be disastrous. There were predictions that 12 million people would leave.
Anti-Maduro hate messages were being generated by bot farms for social media. There were cyber attacks on all Venezuelan government platforms, particularly the NEC. The electricity system was attacked, and there were attempts to destroy electricity pylons.
Thugs attacked buses, hospitals and childcare centres on July 29. Police who arrested the perpetrators said that most had consumed psychostimulant drugs, such as Captagon.
Dominguez argued that the United States was responsible for what he described as a “coup” attempt.
The US had prepared the ground, influencing the global media against the Maduro government. Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State, immediately endorsed Gonzalez’s false claim to have won the election. (Later this was walked back, although the US is still sowing doubt about Maduro’s victory.)
In discussion, Dominguez described some of the Venezuelan government’s achievements under Maduro, including the construction of 5.1 million social housing units and food production self-sufficiency.
He said Venezuelan assets, amounting to US$60 billion, had been illegally seized by the US and Britain governments and their allies.
The Venezuelan government cannot pay its dues to the United Nations now, because US banks have confiscated Venezuela’s funds, he said.