Venezuela 2024: Electoral Fraud or Another Coup Attempt?

Revolutionary Venezuelans rally to defend their electoral victory, August 3, 2024; Credit: William Camacaro.

By Jill Clark-Gollub
Burlington, VT and Washington, DC branches
September 2024

At this year’s WILPF Gathering at Wing Farm in Vermont, and during an earlier meeting of the Cuba-Bolivarian Alliance Committee, I reported on what I had seen in Venezuela during the July elections. This led to very lively discussions! Here is a synopsis of that information.

I attended an Alliance for Global Justice delegation to accompany the Venezuelan people during their presidential election. On July 25th, I walked through the streets of Caracas as the crowd swelled all afternoon for the largest gathering of Venezuelans since the days of the late Hugo Chavez. Several hundred thousand people filled Avenida Bolívar and the surrounding streets to attend a campaign rally for the reelection of President Nicolás Maduro. It was an uplifting, citizens’ celebration of the country’s democracy. People’s enthusiasm for their revolution literally had them dancing in the streets.

No wonder, since the government has managed to deliver 5.1 million low-cost or free homes to the poor (in a population of just 31 million); free healthcare has been brought to every neighborhood through the Barrio Adentro program; education is free with more students studying in higher education, and illiteracy has been eliminated; participatory democracy flourishes through a system of communes and communal councils; and the economy is coming out of the crisis caused by crushing US unilateral coercive measures (“sanctions”).

The vote on Sunday July 28th was another civic festival. There was a high turnout in a process that was peaceful, orderly, and upbeat. I was pleased to see long lines of people at the polling places in the neighborhood around my hotel, starting early in the morning. We visited about six voting centers, where we had the opportunity to see many of the safeguards protecting the vote, such as multiple checks to ensure that only qualified citizens voted, and that they voted only once. Voting was done on computers that were not connected to the internet, and 54% of these voting machines were audited to confirm that the vote counts from the machines matched the paper receipts issued as each vote was cast. What I saw was consistent with Venezuela’s reputation for having one of the most secure and transparent voting systems in the world. Around midnight it was announced that President Maduro had won. Again, large crowds poured into the streets to celebrate.

Sadly, the next day violent protests broke out in the capital and some other cities, supposedly with people protesting alleged fraud. The people causing the violence were quickly arrested and peace returned to the country within 48 hours. In the following days, huge numbers of ordinary Venezuelans took to the streets to show that the majority of the population is in favor of peace and supports the revolution.

The final vote tally was delayed due to a massive cyber-attack on the vote transmittal system. The data was not altered, but this delay was used to propagate allegations of fraud by the United States, some of its allies and the corporate media. Cyber attacks have continued against many government institutions, creating confusion and hampering citizen services. Had these attacks occurred in a country with less robust institutions, a coup d’etat would certainly have occurred. The ongoing cyber warfare is quite concerning, and could be devastating if applied against other countries.

The broad implications of the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election are too complex for an eNews article, but it is important for all who care about peace and justice to be aware that our government is supporting efforts to destabilize another country, causing all of its citizens to suffer. We have no business deciding who won another country’s election, and we have no business imposing illegal, unilateral coercive measures on other peoples. WILPF US is a member of the Sanctions Kill campaign and Americas Without Sanctions. We will need to mobilize these mechanisms to defend the Venezuelan people against a potential increase in illegal sanctions by our government.

Venezuela needs our support — please stay informed and help counter the disinformation! You can see my delegation’s statement here, read an in-depth analysis by UN human rights expert Alfred de Zayas here, and keep abreast of developments with articles in the Orinoco Tribune.