VenEconomy: It’s Time for Plowing in Venezuela 
 From the Editors of VenEconomy
Latin American Herald Tribune
July 22, 2015

As VenEconomy Weekly’s editorial circulating on Wednesday wraps up, "The average Venezuelan is a democrat. It’s their nature!"

A nature that is obviously out of tune with the desire of a dictatorial regime imposed from Cuba and the Miraflores presidential palace, guarded by Venezuela’s armed forces and the paramilitary groups armed by the own Government, also manipulated by the public authorities seized by the regime to work in their favor when things get rough.

A fine example of this is a joint action carried out by the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic for targeted disqualifications against candidates of the opposition with greater possibilities for a seat in the Parliament.

It seems that both of them are working in favor of the current administration, whose rates of acceptance among the population have dropped significantly due to the harsh economic and social crisis as a result of 16 years of misguided communist policies.

First of all, by creating a climate of mistrust, also supported by facts such as a delay in setting the final date for the upcoming elections; the modification of polling stations to obtain a couple of seats in the Parliament; the creation of polling stations within centers of social programs known as "missions"; a last-minute modification of regulations to require gender parity in the selection of candidates; or not making it clear whether physical voting notebooks, which would allow subsequent audits in the process, will be used or not.

For its part, the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, using the logic that "if you can’t beat them, disqualify them," has been making public all the political disqualifications it had shelved for months over the past two weeks.

A fact that shouldn’t have taken either the affected leaders or the Democratic Unity (MUD) party by surprise, because that sword of Damocles was already hanging over the heads of several of their candidates for the Parliament, including political prisoners, leaders with open trials and exiles, and with any criminal and administrative measures.

Four of the opposition’s strongest candidates to win parliamentary seats in December have been affected with disqualifications so far: Daniel Ceballos, the former mayor of the San Cristóbal municipality in San Cristóbal state and currently a political prisoner; María Corina Machado, a former lawmaker; Enzo Scarano, the former mayor of the San Diego municipality in Carabobo state; Pablo Pérez, the former governor of Zulia state, and over 40 leaders of the opposition that remain under threat.

A few days ago, Luis Manuel Aguana, an opposition analyst, published in his personal blog an article entitled "The Two Sides of Voting," in which he raised the following question: voting to make a dictatorship stronger or voting to rescue democracy? That is the question "as Hamlet would have put it if he had become a voter in this Venezuelan electoral drama."

That question takes on major importance at a time when millions of Venezuelans find themselves counting the days for the December 6 elections hoping to say "enough!" to a model of a country that is not in line with their idiosyncrasy or their desire for freedom, progress and development.

VenEconomy is convinced that the right side of voting is the rescue of democracy, the only avenue citizens have to express their views and defeat any dictatorial regime. But it’s also convinced that this time is crucial for the opposition leaders to plow. It’s time for them to stop making calculations of political, partisan and personal nature. It’s time for organization, for oiling the parties’ machinery, for activating the battalions of volunteers to become polling station members and serve as witnesses during the parliamentary elections. It’s time for electoral technical advisory teams to reinforce their strategies in order to detect, denounce, alert citizens and curb the illegalities and abuses committed by the Government.

It’s time for plowing to make changes happen in this land of liberators and freedom. That’s the true nature of Venezuelans.

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