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July 31st, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described Sunday’s elections for a Constituent Assembly tasked with rewriting the 1999 Constitution adopted under the late Hugo Chavez as “a success”. The Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition, holding an absolute majority in the “suspended” National Assembly boycotted the election along with a cohort of civil society organizations. Protesters ignored a ban on protests and violent clashes erupted during the vote. Maduro threatened that everyone who protested could face up to ten years in prison.
President Nicolas Maduro brushed off protesters’ concerns saying: “It’s been and it is a successful day with large participation. Let those who have eyes see. The oligarchy doesn’t have eyes or ears for the people. They’ve always been invisible. … We care about the people’s truth.” Ironically, protesters have used similar terminology when talking about the socialist party (PSUV) oligarchy that aims for a constitutional coup and is responsible for the economic crisis.
National Electoral Council (CNE) chief Tibisay Lucena, one of 13 Maduro allies affected by US sanctions, claimed there had been an “extraordinary voter turnout” of more than eight million voters or 41.5 percent of the electorate. The outcome of the election will have to stand intense scrutiny. The majority of independent polls over recent months consistently showed that about 70 percent of the electorate was against the election of the Constituent Assembly. A voter-turnout of 41.5 percent may as easily be construed as “success” as it may be interpreted as “a successful boycott”.
CNE’s Tibisay Lucena (archives)
Maduro cast the first ballot Sunday, calling it “the first vote for peace, the first vote for the sovereignty and independence of Venezuela.” The president also urged the international community to accept the election. Using standard tenor Maduro externalized Venezuela’s domestic problems, saying: “We’ve stoically withstood the terrorist, criminal violence. Hopefully the world will respectfully extend its arms toward our country.”
In a speech to hundreds of PSUV and personal supporters in central Caracas, Maduro said: “We have a Constituent Assembly. … It is the biggest vote the revolution has ever scored in its 18-year history.” The statement was a thinly veiled reference to the fact that the PSUV leadership and Maduro aim to re-write the constitution adopted in 1999, under Hugo Chavez, who was Maduro’s mentor.
The Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD), the Workers’ Confederation, and others smaller parties and civil society organization, called for a boycott of the vote. The MUD insisted among others that the vote was rigged. Reporters on the ground noted that many polling stations were nearly deserted, and the outcome of the vote is likely to be challenged under any circumstance.
A prelude to tyranny?
The 545-member Constituent Assembly will not only be empowered to write a new Constitution. The Assembly will also be empowered to dissolve the National Assembly, the legislative branch of government where the MUD holds an absolute majority.
The National Assembly was suspended by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The Court claimed the legislative branch of government was “in contempt”, suspended parliament, and usurped its powers.
Attorney General Luisa Ortega, who traditionally was a stern PSUV supporter, denounced the Constituent Assembly as non-representative and corporatist. The “dissident” Attorney General Luisa Ortega, was slammed with a travel ban and an asset freeze for her dissent while the PSUV dominated Supreme Court also limited her prosecutorial powers.
Ten days ago senior Venezuelan UN diplomat Isaias Medina appeared in a video saying he was leaving the U.N. mission to “fight impunity” in Venezuela, which is heaving from a brutal economic crisis and nearly four months of street protests. Medina, who appeared to be speaking in the video from the U.N.’s New York headquarters said:
“I would like to call on this government to stop the killings, to stop the violation of human rights, to reconsider and reflect on their position and think about the importance of the country as a whole. … They (the government) can do whatever they want, but know this: What I am doing is the correct thing to do, and I assume full responsibility for it.”
While the PSUV is promoting the push for a new Constitution as necessary to consolidate the achievements of the Bolivarian revolution, there are many, also traditional PSUV supporters, who fear the consolidation of a PSUV “national security state” akin to corporatism, fascism, with a touch of Stalinism and a constitutional coup under left cover.
International condemnation
There was blistering international condemnation of the vote. “The United States condemns the elections… for the National Constituent Assembly, which is designed to replace the legitimately elected National Assembly and undermine the Venezuelan people’s right to self-determination,” US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. The United States earlier threatened “strong and swift” sanctions on Maduro’s administration if it goes ahead with the election.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, tweeted Sunday that ‘Maduro’s sham election is another step toward dictatorship. We won’t accept an illegitimate government. The Venezuelan people and democracy will prevail.’
The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Saturday, before Sunday’s elections, stressed that it is deeply concerned with the current situation in Venezuela. The Ministry urged the PSUV administration to scrap the election. The Swiss government noted that the election of the Constituent Assembly and plans to remove the National Assembly would further heighten tension, reinforce divisions in society and thus lead to further escalations of the violence that has plagued the country since April. The EU and Latin American powers, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, have also come out against the election, saying it would destroy Venezuelan democracy.
Marred by violence – National guard opens fire
At least nine deaths have been reported since Friday, bringing the death toll over the last four months of protests to more than 120. They include 39-year-old lawyer Jose Felix Pineda, a candidate for the Constituent Assembly, who was shot in his home Saturday night. Protesters both for and against the assembly battled each other across Venezuela, with the opposition blocking roads and police reacting with tear gas and rubber bullets. In Caracas, National Guard troops opened fire from roofs to disperse protesters, using life rounds. President Nicolas Maduro said anyone defying a ban on protests during the historic vote risks up to 10 years in prison.
“I don’t know where their hate comes from…. This is war!” one resident, Conchita Ramirez, told the Vivo Play television network as she described troops firing at buildings and people in the capital. A 39-year-old lawyer who was a candidate in Venezuela’s southeastern town of Ciudad Bolivar was killed from multiple shots fired by assailants who broke into his home overnight, prosecutors said, adding the motive was as yet unknown.
In a protest in the northeast town of Cumana, a 30-year-old regional secretary for a youth opposition party was shot dead in an anti-election protest. The bodies of two men shot dead, aged 28 and 39, were found after a protest Sunday in the western state of Merida, where a 38-year-old man was killed on Saturday in another demonstration. In eastern Caracas, four soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive targeted their motorbike convoy.
In the west of the city, national guard troops fanned out, using armored vehicles, rubber bullets and teargas to disperse protesters blocking roads. Soldiers also violently moved against protesters in the second city of Maracaibo, in the west, and Puerto Ordaz in the east.
CH/L – nsnbc 31.07.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/07/31/maduro-claims-election-success-threatens-protesters-with-10-year-prison-sentences/
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