Inventing Reality: Venezuela’s Parliamentary Election

By Rodrigo Acuña

31 January 2021

Last month on 6 December, the multiparty coalition supporting Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro won 69 per cent of ballots cast in elections for the National Assembly. While over 100 parties took part in the contest, the majority of the opposition boycotted the vote – indeed, voter turnout was low, at 31 per cent.

Opposition moderates still accepted the election’s outcome and harshly critiqued those that called for a boycott. Speaking on the opposition network Globovisión, Bernabé Gutiérrez, general secretary for one of Venezuela’s oldest political parties, Acción Democrática, and new member for the National Assembly, said that ‘this opposition, represented in the new parliament, will not continue the ruckus of a parallel National Assembly, although I see and have heard that there are those that will pretend to legislate and direct the country from overseas.’ He added that what was missing from Juan Guaidó’s team was a ‘Minster of Defense’ – a mocking reference to that fact that, despite being recognised by the United States and its allies as the country’s legitimate head of state, Guaidó did not control Venezuela’s armed forces.

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under Alborada and tagged Venezuela Election US interference.

Trump’s Ex-Security Company and Their Botched Plot to Overthrow the President of Venezuela

By Rodrigo Acuña

American Herald Tribune

12 May 2020

Reports coming out of Venezuela and Miami, Florida in the United States are bordering on the hilarious. If you thought you had seen it all with Venezuela’s hard right-wing opposition and their allies in the U.S. with their actions to overthrow the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro, well, think again. In recent days, images of two captured North American mercenaries have been flooding the air waves in the South American country of Venezuela where Maduro remains the president, despite harsh U.S. economic sanctions.

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under American Herald Tribune and tagged Venezuela US interference Trump Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela: Regime Change in Real Time

By Rodrigo Acuña

American Herald Tribune

20 July 2017

Images of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) firing tear gas at protestors in Venezuela cannot be provided to us in large enough quantities by the mainstream media. Look through the pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times or even the UK’s liberal Guardian and the government of president Nicolas Maduro is a dictatorship in all but name. As of the time of writing this article, with 103 people dead, television and print images of opposition protestors being tear gassed by police are what count and not any actual context of the violence taking place, or who, for that matter, is predominantly perpetrating it.

Posted on May 26, 2019 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under American Herald Tribune and tagged Venezuela Maduro Coup d'état.

Venezuela: same old, same old...

By Rodrigo Acuña

25 February 2014

Latin America Bureau

The recent violence in Venezuela, which has left some 13 people dead, once again highlights how some sections of the political right in that country are unwilling to change their stripes. They have used force in the past and, as long as they continue to gain a sympathetic hearing in the mainstream media, violent protests can and will be used in order to project the image of an ungovernable country.

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under Latin America Bureau and tagged Venezuela Hugo Chávez Coup d'état.

Contrasting Perspectives on Latin America

By Rodrigo Acuña

September-October 2013

Canadian Dimension

With the recent protests in Brazil over a number of social grievances leading up to 2014 FIFA World Cup, and the NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden possibly making his way to Ecuador or Venezuela so as to seek asylum, Latin America has recently captured global media attention. In Brazil, as protestors originally took to the streets over a 20-cent hike in public transport fares, reporting by some of the major corporate media has often been surprisingly sympathetic to protestors.

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under Canadian Dimension and tagged Brazil Venezuela Ecuador.

Chávez's death: a Latin American perspective

By Rodrigo Acuña

ON LINE Opinion - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

8 March 2013

I always expected to see video images of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Havana Cuba delivering a passionate speech at the ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro's funeral amid other leftist heads of state from Latin America and the Caribbean. The news of Chavez's declining health due to cancer over the last two years was well known, as were his repeated statements that cancerous cells no longer inhabited his body.

At times these announcements on the surface appeared accurate. In public the former-lieutenant colonel always tried to project an image of being strong, confident and joyful. Chavez loved to be seen on television, often inaugurating a new school or clinic in a shanty town surrounded by his supporters. But after winning a convincing fourth presidential election in October 2012 by 55% to 45%, and then in November declaring that he needed to return to Cuba for more surgery, it seemed clear Chavez was not well.

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under ON LINE Opinion and tagged Venezuela Hugo Chávez.