On the legislative and regional elections taking place this Sunday in Venezuela, our guest Ermelinda Malcotte, international analyst, comments on the importance of this new electoral process in the country. teleSUR
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00:00Welcome back. We return to the topic of the important legislative and regional elections
00:16that are taking place this Sunday, May 25th, in Venezuela, all across the country, including
00:21Guayana Ezequivas, the 24th state. For that reason, we are joined by international analyst,
00:26Hermelina Malkot from Belgium. Hello, Hermelina. Welcome to This from the South.
00:31Hello. Thank you for inviting me.
00:34It's always our pleasure. Hermelina, as we have been covering since early in the morning,
00:39the Venezuelan people is going to vote in this important election, both at regional and legislative level,
00:45which is the first time they are both held at the same time. What is your take? What is the importance
00:50of these elections that are being held today in Venezuela, especially also taking into account
00:55that in Guayana Ezequivas, the 24th state, since by mandate of the referendum that was held
01:01in December 2023, also that region is also elected for the first time its governor's representative
01:06to the National Assembly and their local authorities as well.
01:12Well, as you said, there are two main major interests of those elections. The first one, of course,
01:17is the integration of Guayana Ezequivo into the national institutions of Venezuela, since they have integrated
01:26formally and officially Venezuela in 2023. So we would have one governate into Ezequivo,
01:32Guayana Ezequivo, and we would have seven MPs represented in the National Parliament of Venezuela.
01:39So this is an important election for that subject. But on the overall interest of those elections is that
01:48Venezuela has been facing very strong economical and political attacks from the United States
01:53and the imperialist countries. So having strong institutions, validated institutions with the
01:59plurality of the representation of the different tendencies, parties that exist in Venezuela,
02:05is very important because it guarantees the institutionalization, the normalization of
02:10politics in front of those political and economical attacks from the United States and its allies.
02:15So it's very important for the stability of the country and also for the question of integration,
02:20international institution of the Guayana Ezequivo.
02:24As we were saying, Venezuela faces all kinds of attacks coming from the United States
02:29and the hegemonic Western media as well, as they have tried, as has been denounced by President
02:35Nicolas Maduro and different Venezuelan authorities, the censorship of the reality of Venezuela,
02:39especially as well taking into account this electoral process as we see in hegemonic Western media.
02:45They try to slander and smear the campaign and also the voting system that Venezuela has,
02:50even though it has been proven over time, the reliability of said system,
02:55especially since they also do electoral drills before going to elections.
02:59What do you think they are trying to get doing these campaigns against the Venezuelan electoral system
03:05and against the reality of Venezuela as a whole?
03:09Well, it's a very disappointing position of what European and United States call themselves
03:15international community. First, it has to be recognized that international community is way wider than just imperialist countries.
03:24But what they are trying to do is to take on the only fascist and terrorist opposition of Venezuela
03:30and present it as the only way that Venezuela can progress and so on and be democratic, which is completely...
03:37I mean, it's a crazy way of seeing politics, but it comes with the agenda of those countries that want to take power into Venezuela.
03:46It has to be remembered that there are lots of opposition in Venezuela and the terrorist fascist opposition represented by Maria Corina Machado
03:53and Mundo Gonzalez is only one part of the opposition. It's the most visible one because the occidental media want to present it as the only opposition.
04:01But there are lots of other opposition, right-wing opposition, and also different tendencies into the left-wing parties in Venezuela.
04:08So the plurality exists, but they deny it, and they just put in front of Chavismo and on the other side, the terrorist fascist parties.
04:19It's why Venezuela also has created an international anti-fascist organization.
04:24So there are lots of pluralistic representation in Venezuela, right-wing representation that has been invited by the president of the parliament of Venezuela
04:35to discuss how to plan the elections and to validate the planning of the elections in front of the...
04:41and to have proposals for the National Electoral Council.
04:44So all the electoral process has been worked and constructed with all the different parties that are represented in Venezuela,
04:51except for the most terrorist and fascist one, which is represented, as always, as the only opposition that exists in Venezuela.
05:00And it's very damaging because the right-wing in Venezuela is not only that.
05:08There are also lots of other countries that represent the pluralistic visions that exist in Venezuela,
05:13and they don't exist for the western media.
05:18As you were referring to that extremist right-wing, which has tried to, in a way, sabotage the elections,
05:23as were denounced over the week by the different authorities, by Diosdado Cabello, the security of the interior peace and justice in Venezuela,
05:33the different attempts, the plans that that extremist right-wing had envisioned to try to sabotage these Sunday elections.
05:40So what is your take of that context that Venezuela comes into these elections with all those threats of violence,
05:46which have been successfully dismantled by the Venezuelan security forces?
05:50Well, I think this is the reason why the president of the parliament in Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguez,
05:57has called for all the political parties and all the organizations that are represented in the parliament
06:03to discuss the elections and to validate the electoral process,
06:06because they have the experience of those terrorist opposition trying to invalidate every electoral process that has been,
06:15the last one being the presidential election.
06:18So they are used to those destabilization processes, and this is why they want to secure the democratic process
06:24with discussing with the opposition, discussing with all the forces that are represented in the country.
06:30On the other hand, it has to be recognized that the terrorist opposition is shifting more and more to very violent,
06:38I mean, it has always been extremely violent, but what we have seen today is the strong connection they are making with paramiliters
06:47from the narco traffic in Colombia and now Ecuador, but also a strong connection they have with the mercenaries
06:55the mercenaries that have been sent from the United States and especially the Blackwater organization.
07:02And under different arrests that have been made lately because they were trying to make explosions of electric facilities and embassies and so on.
07:14And we have seen that 17 different nationalities were represented by those mercenaries and paramiliters.
07:21So there are strong information from other countries into the Venezuelan affair,
07:25and of course that the terrorist and fascist opposition is directly financed by them
07:30and directly taking orders from the foreign countries and especially, of course, United States.
07:36And of course we always see, as the Venezuelan authorities have denounced, the double standards of international organizations
07:42that are very quick to condemn Venezuela, to denounce Venezuela without any kind of evidence,
07:47but then stay quiet in other aspects, in other topics, like the president, Nicolas Maduro said,
07:53regarding the kidnapping of the Venezuelan migrants that are currently kidnapped in El Salvador,
07:59and even the case with Mike Kelly, the two-year-old girl, which was kidnapped for over two years in the United States,
08:07apart from her family, but she finally was able to return to Venezuela with her family.
08:12How can we describe, how can we explain this double standard that exists in these international organizations,
08:18even taking, for example, the case in Palestine, the genocide that is happening right now in Gaza,
08:23and there is a complete silence of everything that is happening over there,
08:27but they are very quick to condemn and judge on other topics.
08:31Yes, this is because the occidental potencies doesn't want to recognize that it can be other democratic process,
08:41and progressive countries that can flourish without being a copy of the imperialist countries,
08:48and they are taking their own way to develop themselves, and it's the good way,
08:53because it's the only way that the country that is submitted to the Monroe Doctrine for the case of the American continent,
09:03it's the only way a country can flourish, is taking its destiny into its hands,
09:08and to have the dignity of having a sovereign policy.
09:11And if we look, for example, in Cuba, the Guantanamo is one of the worst places in the world, run by the United States,
09:19torturing without any judicial process, in a place they just decided to own because of the colonial posture they have.
09:29So they don't want to discuss about their own, I mean, extremely violent way of managing things,
09:37and they don't want to recognize when democratic and progressive processes are developing in the American continents,
09:45and they want to shut it down, and this is the reason they are acting that way.
09:50We have to remember that Venezuela is an extremely rich country in terms of natural resources,
09:55so it's also a very important way to try to take advantage and to have basically the petrol, the oil,
10:04but also all the resources that Venezuela has.
10:08Thank you very much, Marlinda, for all your time here from the South,
10:11and your inputs here on everything that is happening today in Venezuela.
10:15Thank you very much for inviting me.
10:17It was a pleasure. We were talking with Marlinda Malcott, an international analyst,
10:23regarding these important elections, legislative and freedom elections, being held today across all of the Venezuelan territory.
10:30We want to stay in touch with our analysts and with our correspondents as well in the country
10:34to have more updates on everything that has happened throughout the day in our special programming here in Telesur.