August 16 (Radio Habana Cuba) The suggestion of a co-government with the U.S.-backed, coup-plotting far right is a disregard for Venezuelan rule of law.

On Friday, ALBA Movements, an organization bringing together grassroots movements from 25 countries in the Americas, issued a statement rejecting the claims made by the presidents of Colombia and Brazil, who proposed the formation of a cohabitation government in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected in the July 28 elections. 

Below is the statement from ALBA Movements:

“Respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples is a principle that any revolutionary project should prioritize.  It must make that principle a political banner in international relations, even in the face of conservative foreign pressure that always seeks to undermine it.

The social and popular movements that know, love, and defend the Bolivarian people reject, as unusual and untimely, the slightest idea or suggestion, such as that proposed by some ‘progressive’ sectors in the region, of developing diplomatic, political, military, or any other type of interventions in Venezuela, which are aimed at effectively disregarding the results of a concluded electoral process.

These insinuations are nothing more than a denial of Venezuela’s sovereignty and a lack of respect for the people’s will expressed at the polls on July 28.  While we acknowledge the democratic spirit of the governments of Brazil and Colombia, we expect their leaders to rise to the level of the peoples they represent and who elected them.

Respect for the sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its institutions, and the full awareness that allowing half-hearted versions or the suggestion of extranational methods to ‘resolve’ the attempted coup will only create opportunities for imperialism to bury the Revolution, as it has been dreaming of doing for over 25 years.

Neither Petro would ever join a ‘National Front’ led by Alvaro Uribe, nor would Lula be part of a coalition headed by Bolsonaro.  The far-right, which is by definition anti-democratic, would never allow that.  It doesn’t even make pragmatic sense to ask Venezuela to do so.

Neither the media, nor the Organization of American States, nor the United States, nor any other country in the region.  Only the Venezuelan people, through the strength of their legitimate institutions, will determine their destiny.

The mere suggestion of a co-government with the U.S.-funded, coup-plotting far right, which has used physical and symbolic violence to attack Chavista organizations, militants, and the people, is a disregard for the functioning of the Venezuelan rule of law and its Constitution, which does not provide for second rounds of elections or foreign audits.  No country would be willing to surrender its sovereignty by allowing other countries to judge its electoral processes.

It is very simple: The Venezuelan legal framework provides a procedure in case there are doubts about the electoral process, which is the filing of a petition with the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.  This process is currently underway at the initiative of President Nicolas Maduro himself, and the Court’s ruling should be the final word on any speculation.

ALBA Movements calls on progressive and revolutionary forces committed to the anti-imperialist struggle to actively defend Venezuela in this context of attempted coup, which appears to be carried out by a fascist opposition sector but aligns with the U.S. strategy of regional control.

Today they are targeting Venezuela, tomorrow they will go after our peoples.  If we do not defend Venezuela now, it will be too late for us tomorrow.  Let us not be confused or mistaken: the enemy remains the same even if it disguises itself in new clothes and masks.

We are also the same.  We are those who promised Commander Chavez to always be loyal.  We are those who committed to achieving the second and final independence.  We are those who will always defend the sovereignty of our continent.”

Havana, August 16 (Radio Habana Cuba) — Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on Thursday denounced the attempts by the Organization of American States (OAS) to impose a resolution on the electoral process in Venezuela.

On his X account, the foreign minister condemned the document issued because it maintains the same interventionist character as the previous attempts at a resolution on the issue.

“We call for refraining from promoting actions that generate instability and violence in that country,” Rodríguez said.

OAS member countries discussed another resolution in which they again ask the National Electoral Council to deliver the official results of the last elections on July 28, an independent review of them and to stop the alleged “violations of human rights” in Venezuela.

On July 31st, three days after the elections in the South American nation, the Permanent Council met in Washington for an extraordinary session to analyze this situation and demand the immediate delivery of the minutes and a comprehensive verification of the results in the presence of independent observation organizations.

However, the resolution ended up failing, obtaining only 17 votes of the 18 required for approval.  (Source: ACN)

August 11 (teleSUR) Students and professors of the Instituto Superior de Diseños (ISDI), inaugurated an exhibition of posters related to Palestine, its culture, identity and the genocide by Israel to which they are subjected.

The works mix the colors of the Palestinian flag with lines that intersect to become kufiyas, faces of children, women or doves of peace.

According to the vice-dean of ISDI, “Ernesto Fernández, this initiative is a cry for peace, a call to the essence of the human being, a voice on behalf of children without a voice, because Palestine hurts and from that pain is born creation and love”.

One of the exhibitors, Sofia Chico, explained that the exhibition seeks to make visible and condemn the genocide of “Israel” against Palestine. “The least we can do as communicators and human beings is not to stop talking about it,” he explained.

Students and professors of the Higher Institute of Design at the University of Havana are holding in this capital on Tuesday a collective exhibition with posters in support of Palestine, the educational institution informed. #Cuba #ISDi #Palestine #solidarity #students

The exhibiting students chose Canaan as the name of the exhibition, referring to the ancient name of Palestine.

According to exponents, each of the paintings are also the result of an academic exercise and in turn identification with the Gazati cause.

‘Truth will prevail over slander,’ the members of the National Electoral Council pointed out.

August 15 (teleSUR) On Wednesday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) condemned the “Preliminary Report” of the United Nations (UN) Panel of Experts on the Venezuelan presidential elections held on July 28.

All CNE members emphasized that the UN document is filled with politically motivated lies and contradictions. The Venezuelan electoral authority’s statement is presented below:

“The Electoral Power of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela condemns the publication of the so-called ‘Preliminary Report’ of the United Nations panel of experts on the presidential election conducted in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on July 28, 2024. The report is illegal and contrary to the UN principles, violating the terms of reference agreed upon with this Constitutional Power, and, above all, filled with lies and contradictions.

The UN experts panesl accompanied the entire electoral process by express invitation of the CNE, having broad and permanent support throughout its deployment, as they are compelled to admit in the infamous ‘Preliminary Report.’

However, the publication of an alleged ‘report’ was not within their functions and demonstrates the perverse political intent of this dissemination, consisting of fallacious and distorted arguments. According to point 4 of the terms of reference agreed upon between the UN and the CNE on June 29, 2024: ‘The Panel is not an observation mission and, therefore, will not issue any public statement or judgment on the process and/or the outcome of the elections.’

By doing so, this UN experts panel not only betrayed what was explicitly agreed upon with the CNE but also violated the rules established by the United Nations itself, as ‘unlike UN election observation missions, which require a specific mandate from the Security Council or the General Assembly… electoral expert panels do not issue public statements evaluating the overall conduct of an electoral process or its results.’

Beyond the violations of professional ethics by the team of supposed technicians, the content of this ‘report’ is a pamphlet, and their ‘expertise’ is utterly discredited by the poor and easily refutable arguments they use to try to delegitimize the impeccable and transparent electoral process conducted on July 28, as nearly a thousand observers from all corners of the planet could verify. Unlike this UN expert panel, these observers accompanied the Venezuelan people with integrity and honesty in the celebration of their vigorous participatory and protagonistic democracy.

Among the lies attempted in the fraudulent ‘Report,’ the following stand out:

• In Point 6, they claim that there were ‘last-minute changes to polling stations.’ This is absolutely false, and no case or complaint was presented to support this lie. All Venezuelans registered in the electoral register know that they can consult their assigned polling station in advance, which is not changed on voting day.

• In Point 9, although unlike their friends at the Carter Center, they do admit that the data transmission process was interrupted after the polls closed, they nonetheless attempt to cast doubt on the terrorist cyberattack suffered by the CNE platform starting on the night of July 28 and continuing to this day, claiming that no information or explanation was provided. Not only has precise information about this attack been provided since that very night, but national and international companies and specialists have confirmed what happened, and, moreover, the terrorists themselves have claimed responsibility for these crimes on various social networks, extending them later to other areas of the Venezuelan state.

• Despite the delay in the transmission process of results, the CNE applied contingency protocols, achieving an 80 percent transmission of records, with an irreversible result in favor of candidate Nicolas Maduro. After the bulletin to the nation was announced, the dissemination of results could not be carried out due to continuous attacks on dissemination platforms, which are exposed to the Internet.

• Regarding the speculations made in Point 11, it must be reminded to these ‘experts’ that neither the regulations nor the protocol foresee the delivery of records to observers. On the other hand, in Venezuela, voting is electronic, and the scrutiny is automated, as is the totalization, where data integrity is guaranteed through certification schemes. Manual records are vulnerable to falsification, as indeed happened later by some political actors, because there is no technical element guaranteeing their integrity.

• In Point 12, they shamelessly try to validate the scam published by the campaign team of one of the candidates, which clearly shows the political agenda guiding them and the interests they serve. Once again, they must be reminded of the protocol they agreed to with the CNE, according to which the UN experts panel was not authorized to conduct audits on supposed records that have no legal standing, as they were not provided by the electoral authority. These ‘experts’ engage in an illegal act by validating alleged records from unofficial sources.

With their political agenda against the Venezuelan people, these individuals undermine the credibility and reliability of the United Nations while mocking the trust placed in them by its member states.

The National Electoral Council, one of the five independent powers that make up the Venezuelan State, according to our Constitutional mandate, reaffirms to the national and international community that despite the unjustifiable attacks on our electoral system and our good faith, the truth will prevail over slander.”