Maduro’s Authoritarian Backers Are Bleeding Venezuela Dry

A week aft Venezuela’s statesmanlike election, successful which President Nicolas Maduro claims to person defeated guidance campaigner Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia contempt overwhelming grounds to nan contrary, nan world organization is divided successful its reaction. Some countries, including nan United States, person recognized Gonzalez arsenic nan winner. Others, including Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, person withheld nickname of Maduro’s claimed triumph and are demanding that his authorities merchandise a transparent accounting of nan predetermination results.

Gonzalez and nan guidance conjugation led by Maria Corina Machado person been capable to corroborate that he won successful a landslide via nan printed insubstantial tallies produced by Venezuela’s physics voting machines, which its predetermination observers collected astatine polling stations astir nan country. They are publishing that information online truthful nan world knows that nan results claimed by Maduro and nan institutions he controls are fraudulent. This information is nan cardinal obstacle to Maduro’s effort to bargain nan predetermination and nan logic why truthful galore countries astir nan world proceed to unit his authorities to backmost up its claims of triumph aliases admit Gonzalez arsenic nan winner.

However, Maduro has his ain cheerleading squad among a group of autocratic friends who are helping him deflect that world unit and hole for nan consequences to come. Within hours of nan announcement by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council falsely proclaiming Maduro nan victor of nan July 27 election, nan governments of China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua and Russia sent him messages of congratulations. All of these countries are consolidated authoritarian regimes, nan second 3 of which person not witnessed a handover of powerfulness astatine nan apical successful decades.