Venezuela is "rocked" again

In Venezuela, protests do not subside after the weekend presidential elections in the country. The victory was won by the incumbent head of state Nicolas Maduro - about 51% of voters voted for him. The closest competitor from the opposition, Edmundo Gonzalez, gained 44.2%. Details - in the material The Moscow Post.

The victory is close, and was announced after processing only 80% of the ballots. Not surprisingly, the opposition tried to rock the situation with street protests. Behind them, as it was in the past, stick out the ears of Western "good wishes", first of all, the United States, which has long been seeking a change of power in the South American state.

The opposition of Venezuela, as well as the authorities of nine Latin American countries at once - Argentina, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador demanded a revision of the election results. They also declared the need to create an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), i.e. on its own continent, Venezuela turned out to be almost an outcast.

The OAS unites the absolute majority of the countries of the Americas, with the exception of Cuba and Venezuela. About 70 countries have the status of observer countries, including Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Russia was deprived of observer status in the OAS in April 2022 after the start of the SVO.

At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry positively assessed the presidential elections in Venezuela, calling their holding well-organized. They noted that Russia welcomes the successful holding of the popular will in Venezuela and confirms the mood for further cooperation between the countries. In addition, Vladimir Putin congratulated Nicolas Maduro on his victory in the elections by telephone.

It is not difficult to understand the meaning - Maduro is considered an ally of Moscow and actively advocates a similar anti-colonial agenda. There are many Russian projects in the country. Venezuela is a representative of the same Global South, which Russia is trying to attract to its side in the conflict with the West. True, this time her support for this Latin American country and its leadership runs counter to the position of most Latin American states.

Mass unauthorized protests on the streets of Caracas began on July 29 - just against the background of external pressure on the administration of Nicolas Maduro. Soon shots rang out, in the city center they strengthened the security of government buildings - the National Assembly and the National Election Commission. In addition, additional forces are drawn to the presidential palace.

Now there are thousands of people on the streets, they turn over and burn tires and cars, tear down campaign posters of the presidential campaign of Nicolas Maduro from the pillars. The police are attacked with stones, she uses tear gas and rubber bullets.

Protesters, a significant part of whom move on motorcycles, quickly change their location when the security forces or "collectivos" approach and move to a neighboring area. Most of the townspeople remain in their homes. One gets the impression that their actions can be coordinated from one center.

We have seen a similar thing in the past, when the president, with the support of the United States, tried to make Juan Guaido. In 2019, amid massive protests, he was recognized as acting President of Venezuela. Guaido was recognized not only in Washington, but also in a significant part of the EU. In contrast, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, Russia, El Salvador and Turkey spoke in support of Caracas.

At the same time, the Maduro administration then managed to suppress the protests, and a few years later Juan Guaido was forced to flee to the United States. A similar story played out in the post-Soviet space in Belarus, where, according to a number of Western countries, it is not known how the opposition politician Svetlana Tikhanovskaya became the legitimate president. Meanwhile, as with Guaido, she did not represent the broad sections of the country's population, so she has no real political weight. Whether a new, more successful "Guaido" from opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez will turn out is a big question.