UN Experts’ Report on the Venezuelan Elections Has Blind Spots: Mision Verdad
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Caracas, Aug. 2024. Photo: Prensa Presidencial
August 15, 2024 Hour: 2:48 pm
The document reflects a political maneuver to restore lost momentum to Maria Corina Machado’s coup agenda.
On Wednesday, Truth Mission (Mision Verdad), an independent research group dedicated to studying the Imperialist war against Venezuela, published an analysis of the United Nations Electoral Expert Panel’s preliminary report on the Venezuelan presidential elections.
These geopolitical researchers identified a series of blind spots in a document whose accuracy has already been questioned by the Bolivarian authorities. Below is the analysis carried out by Truth Mission.
RELATED:
Eastern Caribbean To Express Solidarity With Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution
The UN Electoral Expert Panel, which accompanied the Venezuelan presidential elections held on July 28, published a document that has become part of the arsenal of accusations against Venezuelan institutions.
Clearly, the maneuver has responded to a political calculation aimed at restoring the lost momentum to the coup agenda led by Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez. The preliminary report indicates that the management of electoral results in Venezuela “did not meet the necessary transparency standards to be credible.”
This document is the product of the work of a commission of four experts, who presented their initial observations of the process during their stay in Venezuela from late June until they left the country on August 2, 2024. This material has been politically instrumentalized to challenge the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro and is being used by various spokespersons and governments to increase diplomatic pressure on Venezuela.
The detailed analysis of the document, its dissemination, and the very conduct of the experts in Venezuela indicate an orchestrated operation and a deliberate use of this Panel to sustain the momentum of the regime change agenda in Venezuela, which has lost its ability to influence the Venezuelan society.
Document Dissemination
As the UN itself stated on its official site, there is a significant difference between an Electoral Expert Panel and an Observation Mission. The latter are commissioned by the UN Security Council or the General Assembly, while the former are “electoral assistance mechanisms” provided by the UN at the request of member states.
In the case of Venezuela’s presidential elections, the Panel’s assistance was due to a request from the National Electoral Council (CNE) through an option in which, according to the UN, a report would be generated that would be “confidential,” addressed to the UN Secretary, and Venezuelan electoral authorities. It would include “recommendations for improvements that could be made in future electoral processes in Venezuela.”
When their presence in the country was announced, the UN indicated that “without a legislative mandate, the UN cannot observe or publicly evaluate the electoral processes of a member state, and therefore, the Panel of Experts will not issue any public statements.” This was reported by Farhan Haq, the spokesperson for UN Secretary Antonio Guterres.
Although the statement was clear, it is now evident that the UN itself has overstepped the attributions of this mechanism. Lacking a legislative mandate, the Panel has violated the principles that govern it, and it is also contributing to the systematic violation of the sovereignty of national institutions by becoming an active part of a post-electoral controversy, siding with the narrative of the far-right opposition.
Inconsistencies
The UN Panel of Experts’ preliminary report clashes with the findings of the Carter Center. According to the U.S.-based foundation, there was no evidence of a cyberattack on the Venezuelan elections, while, according to the Panel, the transmission of data from the machines to the tally center was interrupted.
The document states that while the electronic transmission of results initially worked well, it “abruptly stopped in the hours following the closing of the polls without any explanation given to the candidates.”
This statement is tendentious since no regulation stipulates that the CNE must directly inform the candidates about any technical issues that arise. On the other hand, it is noted that CNE President Elvis Amoroso warned that the transmission had been affected by a cyberattack that delayed the counting process.
Curiously, the Panel repot, which acknowledges the data transmission problems by referring to the hacking mentioned by the CNE, does not highlight the interruption of timeframes and the overall consolidation of the information system by centers and polling stations.
In this way, it minimizes and omits the reasons for the data interruption process, which led to the failure to meet the electoral schedule within the planned timeframes.
It also overlooks key elements of the Electoral Processes Law (LOPRE), which states that the governing body has 30 days to announce the detailed results through the mechanism of the Electoral Gazette, a period that has not yet expired.
Omissions Regarding the Supreme Court’s Expertise
The Panel stated that “it is aware of the electoral contentious appeal filed by President Nicolas Maduro, which seeks to review the process and verify the results. So far, there is no detailed information on how the evaluation will be conducted.”
In this way, it very superficially refers to the electoral contentious appeal requested by the re-elected president before the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
In the current circumstances, the publication of a report with incomplete information aims to exacerbate the post-electoral controversy to benefit Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez.
The document has not been updated, only referring to events up to August 2, and consequently, it does not mention key elements after that date.
The Panel left the country without extending its presence, thereby ignoring the institutional mechanisms that have been activated since then and the significant events that have taken place, such as:
– President Maduro himself requested that the presidential election be subjected to expert analysis.
– Edmundo Gonzalez—self-proclaimed as the winner—has not followed the legal steps to challenge the election.
– He has also not presented evidence—certificates of his supposed victory—and, in fact, is in contempt of the Supreme Court for not appearing before this institution.
In addition to disregarding the events related to the electoral dispute, the report does not refer to the competencies of the Electoral Chamber, which are relevant to clarifying the controversy, thus ignoring the role of Venezuelan institutions. This is particularly important since it is mandatory for UN officials to adhere to the organization’s principles.
The fact that the document was released at this critical point in the post-electoral situation, with relevant omissions, while also violating the principles of dialogue, peaceful conflict resolution, and the preservation of the integrity of member states’ institutions, demonstrates the intention of Western powers to promote conflict and worsen the crisis.
The Long Arm of the United States
The Venezuelan government has expressed its absolute rejection of the publication, alleging the violation of agreements between the UN and the CNE, and the transgression of the very principles of the Expert Panel mechanism.
Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil stated that the UN report disseminates “a series of lies and violates in both content and method the principles governing the functioning of expert groups.” He also considers that this action “represents an absolutely reckless act that undermines trust in the mechanisms designed for cooperation and technical assistance.”
Gil emphasized that the UN experts had access to all phases of the electoral event and witnessed firsthand the functioning of the Venezuelan system, so “the opinion expressed in their irresponsible report is nothing more than propaganda serving the coup interests of the Venezuelan far right.”
He also denounced that during their stay in Venezuela, the members of the UN Expert Panel had frequent contact with officials from the U.S. State Department. In light of this situation, the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister asserted that the UN experts’ statements are the result of instructions from the U.S.
These elements are highly relevant because the Venezuelan government, within the framework of its duties as a guarantor of the nation’s comprehensive security, is referencing the possible interference of U.S. officials in the Venezuelan elections, using the Expert Panel as a Trojan horse.
This reinforces the argument that the dissemination of the report and its content are part of a political operation to delegitimize the July 28 elections. However, it should be understood as an urgent resource to bring the coup agenda back to the forefront, on the eve of a rally called by Maria Corina Machado for Saturday, August 17, which requires new mobilization elements.
teleSUR/ JF Source: Mision Verdad
