Joseph Humire discusses Venezuela’s local elections

In a recent interview with CGTN, Joseph Humire explains how the elections process in Venezuela is more complicated than what is apparent at first glance citing an increasingly restless population refusing to vote out of distrust for the legitimacy of the process. Humire posits that the people of Venezuela have been cheated continuously by fraudulent democratic elections, which has lead to voters abstaining from the process as a form of protesting the lack of genuine representation in their elections. Since the voters have been consistently slighted in the past, the general consensus is that they will continue to be taken advantage of, and that there is no legitimate reason to participate.

The marginalization of authentic politics has sparked unrest amongst the working class in Venezuela, which has lead to widespread protests in the streets that are marred with images of riot police firing wildly into crowds and molotov cocktails burning infrastructure. Despite what appears to be a unifying protest group growing in the streets, Humire suggests that it is unlikely that there will be an agreement on one candidate to represent the opposition in the upcoming elections cycle against the incumbent President Maduro.

Following the contentious 2013 elections, where Maduro was narrowly elected to his current office, numerous scandals have plagued the incumbent administration ranging from illicit ties to narcotic trafficking to numerous human rights violations that may put Maduro’s 2018 candidacy in jeopardy. Joseph Humire wraps up the interview by underlining the importance of unifying behind one candidate in order for the opposition to have a sincere chance at winning the election, but reminds us that this is historically unlikely.

To watch the full interview discussing complications within the 2018 Venezuelan elections cycle from CGTN click here.