<div dir="ltr">
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/11/22/five-reasons-left-won-venezuela">commondreams.org</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Five Reasons the Left Won in Venezuela</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Leonardo Flores - November 22, 2021</div><div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits"><br></div><div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">every major opposition party in Venezuela participated
in elections. For the fifth time in four years, the left won in a
landslide. Voters elected 23 governors, 335 mayors, 253 state
legislators and 2,471 municipal councilors. The governing United
Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won at least 19 of 23 governorships
(one race remains too close to call) and the Caracas mayoralty in the
November 21 "mega-elections." Of the 335 mayoral races, the vote count
has been completed in 322 of them, with PSUV and its coalition taking
205, opposition coalitions 96 and other parties 21. Over 70,000
candidates ran for these 3,082 offices, and 90% of the vote was counted
and verified within hours of polls closing. Turnout was 42.2%, eleven
points higher than last year's parliamentary elections.</div></div><div class="gmail-content"><div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p dir="ltr">Here's why chavismo, the movement behind the Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, won:</p><p dir="ltr">1. <strong>Good governance in health, housing and food.</strong> Venezuela's <a href="https://www.codepink.org/venezuelas_coronavirus_response_might_surprise_you" target="_blank">health policies</a>
in response to Covid-19 have been exemplary. The expectation in the
U.S. was that the coronavirus would overwhelm Venezuela's healthcare
system, which has been devastated by years of sanctions. And yet, per
million population, Venezuela registered 15,000 cases and 180 deaths.
For the sake of comparison, the figures in the U.S. are 146,000
cases/million and 2,378 deaths/million, Brazil's are 103,000 and 2854,
and Colombia's are 98,000 and 2,481. Unlike images we saw in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/americas/guayaquil-ecuador-overwhelmed-coronavirus-intl/index.html" target="_blank">Ecuador</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/world/bodies-again-pile-up-in-bolivia-as-latin-america-endures-a-long-deadly-coronavirus-wave.html" target="_blank">Bolivia</a>, there were no bodies of victims left on the streets, nor were there overflowing morgues like in New York.</p><p dir="ltr">In
terms of housing, the Venezuelan government has built 3.7 million homes
for working class families over the past ten years, the majority of
which were built and delivered by the Maduro administration while under
sanctions.</p><p dir="ltr">As deadly as the sanctions have been, things
would be significantly worse were it not for Venezuela's most important
social program in the past five years: the CLAPs. These consist of boxes
of food and other necessities, some of which are produced locally,
which are packaged and distributed by communities themselves. Seven
million Venezuelans families receive CLAP boxes every month, out of a
country of 30 million people. Not only has this program been
instrumental in keeping people fed, it has invigorated the base of
chavismo and reconnected the government with grassroots after the PSUV's
defeat in the 2015 legislative elections.</p><p dir="ltr">2. <strong>The economic situation is improving. </strong>According to an August 2021 <a href="https://www.ghm.com.ve/datanalisis-50-de-los-venezolanos-asegura-que-su-vida-mejoro-en-los-ultimos-anos/" target="_blank">survey</a>
by opposition pollster Datanálisis, 50% of Venezuelans consider that
their lives have improved compared to the previous year or two. Despite
sanctions that have caused a <a href="https://orinocotribune.com/the-numbers-prove-it-venezuela-has-lost-99-of-income-due-to-inhuman-blockade/" target="_blank">99% drop</a> in government income, the Venezuelan economy is stabilizing. Inflation is down to <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15351" target="_blank">single digits</a>
for the first time in four years. Credit Suisse projected 5.5% growth
in 2021 and 4.5% growth in 2022. Oil production hit an 18-month high in
October, helped by a trade <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15351" target="_blank">deal with Iran</a>. </p><p dir="ltr">3. <strong>The left is united (mostly). </strong>The
PSUV didn't win the elections alone, they were united with 8 other left
parties in a coalition known as the GPP (Great Patriotic Pole). The
PSUV itself held internal primaries in August, the only party to do so.
Over half the GPP candidates were women, 52%, while another 43% were
youth. Overall, 90% of the candidates hadn't held office before,
suggesting a renewal of the party from the grassroots. However, this
marked the second election in a row in which the left wasn't completely
united. A coalition that included Venezuela's Communist Party ran its
own ticket. These parties got less than 3% of the vote in the 2020
parliamentary elections and their decision to run separately appears to
have had no impact on the gubernatorial races.</p><p dir="ltr">4. <strong>The opposition is divided.</strong>
Never known for their unity, the Venezuelan opposition suffered a major
split as a result of some parties opting for boycotting elections and
attempting to overthrow the government, while others preferred a
democratic path. Despite all the major parties participating in these
elections, the opposition was split into two main coalitions, the MUD
(Democratic Unity Roundtable) and the Democratic Alliance. The vast
majority of the 70,000 candidates are in the opposition and they were
running candidates against each other in almost every race. Of the 23
gubernatorial races, six were won by PSUV candidates with less than 50%
of the vote and by less than six points - more unity between the MUD and
Democratic Alliance could have made the difference.</p><p dir="ltr">A count of the votes in the gubernatorial and Caracas mayoral races show the PSUV coalition taking 46% of the <a href="https://twitter.com/lubrio/status/1462666455225450498?s=20" target="_blank">total vote</a>,
with the rest split between the various oppositions. A united
opposition could win in Venezuela, but "united opposition" is an
oxymoron.</p><p dir="ltr">5. <strong>The opposition is deeply unpopular.</strong>
While much is made about the alleged lack of support for President
Maduro (the millions of votes his party got will never be acknowledged
by the U.S.), it's less known that the opposition is deeply unpopular.
Here are the <a href="https://www.globovision.com/article/hinterlaces-34-de-los-venezolanos-apoyaria-al-psuv-y-13-a-la-oposicion-en-las-megaelecciones" target="_blank">disapproval ratings</a>
for some of the opposition's key figures: Juan Guaidó, 83% disapproval;
Julio Borges (Guaidó's "Foreign Minister), 81%; Leopoldo López
(Guaidó's mentor and mastermind of coup attempts), 80%; Henry Ramos
Allup (longtime opposition leader), 79%; Henrique Capriles (2012 &
2013 presidential election loser), 77%; and Henri Falcón (2018
presidential election loser), 66%. All of these but Falcón are part of
the MUD.</p><p dir="ltr">The MUD coalition spent years claiming they
represented a majority, a claim which couldn't be verified by their
strategy of electoral boycotts. However, their return to the electoral
process only marked a ten point increase in voter turnout compared to
2020. Moreover, the MUD placed below other opposition parties in 9 of 23
states and in Caracas. The MUD only won one of the three governorships
taken by the opposition. This might be due in part to widespread
rejection of U.S. sanctions. The MUD has repeatedly endorsed deadly
sanctions despite the fact that <a href="https://finanzasdigital.com/2021/08/encuesta-datanalisis-el-764-de-los-venezolanos-rechaza-las-sanciones-petroleras-y-cree-que-afectan-su-vida-sin-provocar-cambios-politicos-relevantes/" target="_blank">76%</a> of Venezuelans reject them.</p><p dir="ltr">The
MUD enjoys the political, financial and logistical support of the
United States and the EU, while members of other opposition parties have
been denounced and sanctioned by the U.S. for negotiating with the
Maduro administration. These elections should put the Biden
administration on notice that continuing to support the MUD, and in
particular, the fiction of Guaidó as "interim president", is a failed
policy. </p></div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>