What You Missed About Venezuela Not Seen in U.S. News
Venezuelan “president-elect” Edmundo González Urrutia distanced himself from the data provided by the opposition days before leaving for Spain and some humblebragging about my work
I’m so happy to be back at it after taking a much-needed week off. I spent a lot of time with my grandkids, visited some family in East Texas, and did a whole lot of nothing. I did, however, post on social media celebrating what felt like a validation of my work even though TikTok took down several of my posts for talking about my reporting on the Venezuelan election. The platform also added three strikes to my account. That didn’t stop me though, as you can see below.
It’s worth noting that every other platform including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allowed me to post about it at will and my reporting on the Venezuelan election got a ton of attention and was shared widely. If you’d like to read the latest report or the four before it, you have to be a paid subscriber to access the archives. Articles are free for the first week after publishing.
Validation
Let’s start with the feeling of validation. As you know, one of the key factors of The Washington Post and the Associated Press reporting that no one is talking about is that they couldn’t authenticate the opposition’s tally sheets. Frankly, if they had explained to the reader why they couldn't validate the data, we’d be having a much different conversation about who won and I wouldn't have had to do it. But, they didn't. So I did.
The two reporters for the Associated Press who reported on the Venezuelan election held an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) event on Reddit on Monday. Despite my work getting broad attention, I decided to ask them about the abundance of missing context and truth in U.S. reporting. As expected (and like the State Department), I didn't get a response which is telling. It shows that neither has answers to some basic and obvious questions thus, signaling bias.
Some of their other responses to Redditors highlighted that bias as well.
If you’re a reader, you know all about the “why” in this story and you’ll also know that my asking the Department of State about statements like, “The AP could not independently verify the authenticity of the 24,532 tally sheets provided by the opposition,” forced them to backtrack from citing the articles as evidence. They then moved on to demanding President Nicolás Maduro prove he won instead.
In the words of a fellow journo, “Oh shit, you got ‘em!”
Wait, a Dictator? Are You Sure?
Interestingly, just days after publishing my latest report showing what appears to be fraudulent data, the so-called “president-elect” of Venezuela, Edmundo González Urrutia distanced himself from the data through a statement from his lawyer. His lawyer stated that Urrutia wanted to be clear that he had “nothing to do” with the allocation, digitization, or publication of the tally sheets on a third-party website outside Venezuela's electoral system.
The statement was in response to the charges brought against Urrutia.
Forty-eight hours later, Urrutia fled after President Maduro’s team reportedly negotiated with Spain to grant a Spaniard military aircraft access to Venezuelan airspace and an airport ensuring Urrutia's safe passage to Spain. Like a jilted ex-lover, Urrutia seemingly refused an offer from the Department of State for safe passage through an Argentinian embassy, as State spokesperson Matt Miller demanded of Maduro in a statement nearly three weeks ago.
If a dictator is, “a political leader who possesses absolute power” and a dictatorship is, “a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity,” then Maduro isn’t the former and Venezuela isn’t the latter. It’s a country run by multiple factions in government with many opposed to Maduro. A total of ten candidates ran for president in the last election. Nine confirmed the results of a Maduro victory after their own independent audits and after the Supreme Court’s analysis.
It also seems Maduro accepted Urrutia’s claims of ignorance after distancing himself from the data. So much so that he allowed a Spanish plane to come and pick Urrutia up. Maduro even offered positive words and acknowledged Urrutia’s efforts in seeking peace for Venezuela.
“I can say to Ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia – which I had confronted hard after July 29, I have been attentive to all of this – I understand the path you have taken, and I respect it,” said President Maduro. “And I hope it goes well on your path and in your new life. You can be assured, that your wishes for peace and harmony in the country will be fulfilled. In Venezuela, peace will reign above anything else.”
Does that sound like a dictator? Hardly.
Continued Lies and Hypocrisy
Even after all of the data presented to my contact at the Department of State, Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued promoting Urrutia’s supposed victory despite not having any scrutable evidence to prove it. Meanwhile, he’s one of the same people trying to convince us that what is happening in Palestine is justified despite the mountains of evidence suggesting genocide.
“On July 28, the Venezuelan people overwhelmingly and unequivocally expressed their desire for democratic change,” said Blinken in a statement. “The election results and the will of the people cannot be merely swept aside by Maduro and the Venezuelan electoral authorities. We stand with González Urrutia in his call to continue the struggle for liberty and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
Remember, I have publicly offered many times for other journalists to review my work before publishing and the few who took me up on it couldn’t debunk it. Instead, they came away with more questions that they felt high-ranking government officials at the Department of State, among others, would eventually have to answer. Even the Department of State refused my requests for them to explain my findings. You know, in case I was missing something.
As it turns out, I’m not. That’s all the validation my work needs.
Is It Over?
The braggadocious opposition leader and failed coup plotter, Maria Corina Machado jumped at the chance to take responsibility for the fraudulent tally sheets. She continues to brag about her months-long effort to pull it all off while still using divisive and antagonizing language on social media. She’s even got the war criminal and private military contractor, Erik Prince all fired up to try and take on Venezuela and attempt yet another coup against President Maduro.
As long as she has support from the U.S., Machado will continue to try and violently overthrow the Venezuelan government. At this point, it’s safe to say that Machado doesn’t care if people die in service to her. She is attempting to do what Blinken claims Maduro is doing by sweeping aside the will of the people who continue to reject U.S. imperialism and colonization.
In my opinion, the failed coup is over but our U.S. government is bloodthirsty and never admits wrongdoing no matter how many millions of lives are lost. It will never admit to being caught trying to not just influence an election, but rig one. It will never admit wrongdoing no matter how many people die for its corporate interests such as the “wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. will certainly never admit how many hundreds of thousands suffer because of its sanctions — a form of collective punishment of the people for keeping leaders the U.S. hates, like Maduro, in power.
Sure, we caught them. But will it stop them? I doubt it.
I’m a freelance writer and journalist for The Antagonist Magazine and Unicorn Riot. Find me on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work become a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp
Thank you for the thorough reporting on the recent election in Venezuela. I would have preferred our State Department to say they are withholding official statements until fact finding has been done. Why jump the gun so quickly? Rhetorical question.