> You think it’s a good idea for foreign countries to overturn domestic elections?
I certainly don't, and I don't speak for the person you replied to but I figure most people commenting here don't think that either
> The Bolivarian regime came to power in a free and fair election
Hugo Chavez was elected president legitimately in 1998, so it's true that the Bolivarian regime came to power fairly. But just about nobody that's paying attention thinks Maduro won the presidential election in 2024. Elections were held, Maduro lost (by a huge margin), and he continued being president anyway
I’ve heard Maduro was not elected in free and fair elections… The official results reported Maduro winning with about 51 % of the vote.
European Parliament resolutions and reports explicitly described the process as lacking transparency and integrity such as not publishing detailed polling station results, meaning the results could not be independently verified, and concluding the election was neither free nor fair.
You may recall María Corina Machado was barred from running shortly before the election itself.
Maduro was reported winning with 5,150,092 votes, or 51.20000% of the vote, and the main opposition had 44.20000% of the vote. These are considered suspiciously round percentages.
Which election. I find no source for that. And even if that where the case, it wouldn't be too far fetched to think someone computed votes from rounded percentages when writing an article.
The Carter Center has a 43 page report that goes into the facts of the 2024 election in detail.
For example “A few minutes after midnight, with 80% of the votes counted, the CNE declared Nicolas Maduro the winner, with 51.2% of the vote, followed by Edmundo González with 44.2%. The CNE did not publish the results by polling station, claiming - without providing evidence - that a cyberattack had made it impossible to upload the results to its website. However, the CNE did not release the results by any alternative method. The lack of detailed results prevented independent verification of the overall results announced by the CNE The CNE canceled three postelection audits that could have verified the alleged cyberattacks.
This included a second citizen verification exercise. The integrity of the elections was damaged by the lack of transparent information.
In a parallel effort, the opposition - through party representatives, observers, and citizens — collected and published online more than 80% of the results forms produced by the voting machines. According to these results, González received 67.1% of the vote, and Maduro received 30.4%. The Venezuelan government claimed - without providing evidence - that the results forms published by the opposition were forged. However, the result forms published were deemed legitimate by external auditors and academics. The Carter Center reviewed the data in the results forms and found it to be accurate.”
> I’ve heard Maduro was not elected in free and fair elections…
I've heard that American elections are rigged too. That still isn't an open invitation for an invasion by another nation to kidnap government officials on US soil. Even if Maduro had abandoned elections entirely and installed himself as king it wouldn't justify what the US has done.
If you look at the Wikipedia article on the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, it seems to be unlikely that the outcome of that election was that Maduro won.
The opposition boycotted the election and told their supporters not to vote, then cried foul when they lost. It may not have been a representative election, but the incumbent party had no need to rig it.
Venezuela haven't had any free and fair election since the dictator in power was Chaves.
IMO, the US doing piracy around it is way more concerning than kidnapping a dictator that sent the military against its people, architected a couple of famines, and forced a double-digts percentage of their population out of the country.
Still, this won't lead to anything good. Because the entire US Executive is composed of incompetent sadistic people right now. But it could be a good thing for Venezuela in different circumstances (but I imagine anybody capable of making good change there would refrain from doing so).
So once elected more than 25 years ago they are allowed to stay and perpetuity and stage sham election just because they won a legitimate one a generation ago?
Venezuelans didn’t just vote for a candidate. They voted to re-found the country under a new constitution and ideology. They’re enjoying the consequences of the ideology they voted for.
