True to form the commercial media provide an unbalance and misleading account of yesterday’s Chavista electoral triumph in Venezuela

Just consider this Reuters article. First it quotes President Maduro’s statement on celebrating the Chavista party’s (the PSUV’s) triumph. They don’t quote the part of his short statement in which he calls on the entire nation to work together and pledged equal support for the three states that are now in the hands of the opposition. Then the article makes reference to the opposition’s boycott in previous elections on grounds “that a fair vote was impossible due to rigging and intimidation by violent gangs loyal to Maduro.” That’s one point of view, but there is also another, namely that there was never solid evidence that previous elections were rigged, only that the governing party was accused of getting unequal time on state TV channels and that their tables at the polls were a few feet over the established line set by the national electoral council, and other “unfair” practices. Throughout the article, Reuters refers to the Chavista party as the “ruling party,” somewhat of a loaded term. 

The article does quote the prestigious opposition pollster Luis Vicente León as saying “This result is lamentable for the opposition." Any objective journalistic account of the elections would have pointed out that yesterday’s smooth electoral process and the Chavista victory put the lie to Washington’s narrative that Maduro is a dictator with no popular support. 

It’s true that the PSUV coalition didn’t get a majority of the vote. But 46% by a government that has been submitted to a ruthless international campaign, which reduces the export or its main commodity to nearly zero, isn’t bad. And it certainly debunks the myth that Maduro is a dictator without any popular support. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuelans-head-polls-regional-local-elections-opposition-returns-2021-11-21/