Venezuela's Maduro wins a 3rd Presidential Term. Quelle Surprise.

TL;DR Venezuela will continue on being South America's #1 hellhole. Film at 11.

Let's not act like it couldn't happen here. We've already had one coup attempt. The MAGAts are never going to go away quietly.

Exactly, R2.

We could be Venezuela, starting in 2025.

100% FRAUD.

""Venezuela and its revolution will endure under the proven leadership of vice president [Nicolas] Maduro.""

Did Penn and Micheal Moore ever apologize for their stupidity? Or do they still think Venezuela is a success story?

We ought to remember, before anyone starts loudly clamouring about electoral fraud, that Venezuela's current dire situation has been caused by the sanctions applied by Obama and then Trump, who even went as far as to try to arrange a coup against Maduro. The Venezuelan populace is very much aware of the devastating impact that neoliberal policies imposed by the nefarious Carlos Andrés Pérez had in the 1980s, which were continued with varying degrees of severity by all successive presidents until the execrably dishonest Rafael Caldera heralded the rise of the socialist Hugo Chávez.

Say what you want, but Chavez raised 50% of the Venezuelan population from poverty in 10 years and got rid of illiteracy. Maduro has continued his policies, which would have been extremely successful if Venezuela hadn't been relentlessly attacked and ultimately, subjected to an economic blockade by the US and its lackeys.

R7 All the virtues and glories of the two Venezuelan dictators you so admire must be why Venezuela is experiencing the greatest mass emigration in its history. The populace, as you call it, is getting the fuck out of Venezuela, chum.

Socialism doesn't triumph when everyone becomes middle class. For socialism to last, it needs the poor. Hugo Chavez said this and it makes perfect sense.

ELECTIONS MATTER! Except when they can be simply disregarded.

Are you saying that a rabid American exceptionalist like Patricia Rucker would be against Venezuela, as she represents the corporate interests that would like the Bolivarian government to fall, R9? That is shocking. Also, the people involved are Katya Rimkunas from the International Republican Institute; Emilio Pacheco, a Conservative pro-US Venezuelan who stands to profit considerably from the fall of the Venezuelan government, and US intelligence assets like Sylvie Legère... Come on! You should do better.

Ben Norton provides some excellent counterpoints, without even trying.

R11 Well, now the ones who stand to profit immeasurably from this fraudulent election are Maduro and his goons. They will continue to lock up the opposition, submerge Venezuelans in deeper and deeper poverty just like Cuba did, and surrender their country to Russia, China and North Korea.

Just the other day, I read somewhere (NYT?) that the opposition candidate had a huge lead in the polls over Maduro, something like 30 points. And the candidate was not even the main opposition leader who Maduro managed to block from running, but, rather, a proxy agreed on by the opposition parties. This is ridiculous but unsurprising.

Maduro calls Elon Musk his "archenemy." Jeez...how do you pick a side between those two?

There are fights in which you wish both sides would die in a grease fire.

[quote] Venezuelans clash with police after disputed election result

Security forces in Venezuela have fired tear gas and rubber bullets against people protesting over Sunday’s disputed election result.

Thousands of people descended on central Caracas on Monday evening, some walking for miles from slums on the mountains surrounding the city, towards the presidential palace.

Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital the day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed he had won.

The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro's declaration of victory as fraudulent, saying its candidate Edmundo González won convincingly with 73.2% of the vote.

Opinion polls ahead of the election suggested a clear victory for the challenger.

Opposition parties had united behind Mr González in an attempt to unseat President Maduro after 11 years in power, amid widespread discontent over the country's economic crisis.

A number of Western and Latin American countries, as well as international bodies including the UN, have called on the Venezuelan authorities to release voting records from individual polling stations.

Argentina is one country which has refused to recognise President Maduro's election victory, and in response Venezuela recalled diplomats from Buenos Aires.

Diplomats from six other Latin American countries - Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay - have also been withdrawn for what Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil described on social media as "interventionist actions and statements".

Venezuela's government also announced a temporary suspension of commercial air flights to and from Venezuela with Panama and the Dominican Republic starting from 20:00 local time on Wednesday.

A heavy military and police presence, including water cannons, was on the streets of Caracas with the aim of trying to disperse protesters and prevent them from approaching the presidential palace.

Crowds of people chanted “Freedom, freedom!” and called for the government to fall.

Footage showed tyres burning on highways and large numbers of people on the streets, with police on motorbikes firing tear gas.

In some areas, posters of President Maduro were ripped down and burned while tyres, cars and rubbish have also been set alight.

Armed police, military and left-wing paramilitaries who are sympathetic to the government clashed with protesters and blocked off many roads around the city centre.

Supposedly Maduro lets the military control the drug trade in Venezuela. That keeps them loyal to him, The country is really fucked,.

Rigged!

Maduro:

15,800 political prisoners

1,652 torture victims

7,7M left the country

300 people killed in protests

39 forced disappearances

And it's about to get worse. Maduro just ordered the imprisonment of the opposition leaders.

An actually balanced and truthful analysis. The real intention of the US and its allies is to steal Venezuelan oil and the immense wealth of the Orinoco Mining Arc.

[quote] US Says Maduro Lost Venezuela Vote as He Seeks to Jail Rivals

(Bloomberg) -- The US said the world should acknowledge that Venezuela’s opposition won last weekend’s election while President Nicolas Maduro doubled down on his claims of victory, saying his opponents should be jailed for decades.

“Everyone can see — it is clear that Edmundo González Urrutia defeated Nicolas Maduro by millions of votes,” Brian Nichols, the top US diplomat for Western Hemisphere affairs, told a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington. The world’s governments should acknowledge Gonzalez’s “overwhelming” victory, he said Wednesday.

Maduro has been ratcheting up his rhetoric against González and María Corina Machado, the former legislator his government barred from running in Sunday’s election. At a news conference, the socialist leader said they “should be behind bars” for allegedly promoting post-election violence and seeking to destabilize his government.

“Ms. Machado, where are you? Why don’t you show your face, after so much outrage and violence?” Maduro said, building on top lawmaker Jorge Rodríguez’s call for her arrest on Tuesday following demonstrations.

Machado later responded to the comments by Nichols, saying it was a “very important” confirmation of Gonzalez’s victory and backed his call for greater transparency in the vote tabulation.

The opposition leaders say they have overwhelming proof that González is the rightful election winner, citing evidence from more than 80% of the country’s polling stations. Venezuela’s electoral body said Maduro took about 51% of the vote.

I wonder if this turd is going to back off of the jingoism about Guyana now.

If he invades Guyana he’s basically BEGGING for US airstrikes.

Just block R7. It’ll do y’all good.

Ben Norton offers a brilliant analysis that showcases US involvement in the latest attempted coup in Venezuela, as well as all previous ones in 2019 and 2002.

R22, he can't afford to send the army out of the country now. He needs them to repress his own citizens.

Venezuela is the new Cuba.

Too often supposedly well-meaning socialism revolves into authoritarian dictatorships.

"devolves into" I meant.

Glenn Greenwald's superb analysis, which reflects the deliberate tergiversations in which the Western media is engaging, to the detriment of true democracy in Venezuela (hint: the "opposition" is financed by the US and they are lying about election fraud).