Caracas, 03 May. AVN.- After former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles decided not to recognize results of the April 14 elections, the media and right-wing sectors in Venezuela coincided in a plot which includes calls to riots and a scenario for a coup d'État to justify foreign intervention.
The pattern of fraud has been the most used strategy for the opposing sector to foster hostility among its supporters, expressed among some leaders in the face of frustrated attempts to seize power through elections; the media, in turn, have always work to echo these kind of spirits.
"A poor victory for the heir," "Tight elections" and "You were defeated" were the main headlines on April 15 at newspapers Tal Cual, El Nacional and El Universal, respectively. They echoed Capriles' frustration after his defeat on April 14, when irreversible results were released by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Fraud claims on behalf of opponents when results do not favor them go back a long way. Up to date, Venezuela still awaits alleged evidences against Hugo Chavez's victory in 2004, in a recall referendum where he was ratified by over 59 per cent of voters.
"This is a meanwhile government," "We will not recognize results until each ballot is counted," were Capriles' words, highlighted at screens and front pages, to disown the will of people who elected Maduro as Venezuelan President in an automated voting process, acknowledged worldwide and in which manual vote counting is not longer used.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday 16 April, El Nacional front page headlined with a quote of the losing candidate: "Maduro is an illegitimate president."
Vented anger
Precisely on April 15, a few hours after the election result was released, Capriles convened a press conference aired live in local private TV station Globovision. Amidst a violent speech, he called on his supporters to vent their fury and express their anger with synchronized banging of pots and pans, as well as protests at regional CNE seats.
Capriles' call was followed by the death of nine Venezuelans who supported the Bolivarian Revolution and 78 wounded. It was the consequence of sustained attacks against state-run health care centers, food markets, headquarters of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Also, a 12-year-old child was murdered when a car ran over groups celebrating Maduro's victory.
Before that regrettable scenario, writer Luis Britto Garcia told Venezuelan News Agency (AVN) that "one may theorize that it corresponds to a subsequent plan, which is discrediting the elections with a view to justify a foreign intervention."
Britto Garcia explained that the opposition's plan is "to create a condition of disturbance and protests and invent a repressive answer on behalf of the Government." The writer refers to front pages as El Nacional's, dated on April 16, with a picture of young people – lying face-up, hands in the air, without a scratch – at Francisco Fajardo highway, eastern Caracas, in front of a ring of the Bolivarian National Gaurd, with the headline: "Repressed actions of demonstrators at Francisco Fajardo highway and other roads of the capital."
However, nothing is said about attacks which caused the death and injuries of supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution, or they are treated as common crimes in the crime report page, taken out of political context and separated from Capriles' call to violence.
"In this case, the media and media outlets in general, have basically hidden the happening of these events, they have said that those things did not occur," Luis Britto Garcia stated.
Along the days since April 15, private media, in tune with the former presidential candidate, continue with a campaign for an non-existing recounting of votes (54% of the total vote is audited by citizens, poll watchers of all political parties involved in the process and military officers); adding claims of an alleged persecution of public officials who support the opposition, though not a single employee has denounced it; banging of pots and pans at night; and Capriles' supporters allegedly wounded by state-run security bodies.
Unceasing plan
Writer Luis Britto Garcia insisted on affirming that the goal of the Right is to "legitimize or apologize a foreign intervention, the United States intervention or legitimize a domestic military coup supported by the United States."
To achieve that goal, Britto detailed, the media "have established fake patterns of answers from the State." For instance, he warned about a picture showing repression in Egypt in 2011, which is used by the correspondent to Venezuela of Spanish newspaper ABC. Ludmila Vinogradoff, as "evidence" of alleged violence on behalf of the State. The picture was subsequently eliminated from the blog.
"They have even turned to faking, seeking to cause a wave of protests, which calmed down on the other side," he added. Thus, he said that the strategy of using violence to breed ground for a coup d'état and foreign intervention failed.
As a matter of fact, Britto Garcia recalled: "We have already seen that alleging riots, disturbance and protests, imperial forces have destroyed countries, for instance the case of Libya."
Before those failed attempts, Britto comments that maybe the United States had already questioned Venezuela's elections by means of its Secretary of State, John Kerry, but it realized that the plan would not take effect since it did not have the support of the Armed Force and because there is not such a disturbance among the population.
"We have to be on the alert because these are constant plans, plans which are not discarded but continue in a drawer and ready to be put into practice when the situation allows to."
Though opponent's violent actions had a peak on April 15-16, were controlled by the Bolivarian Government and state-run institutions; and the Electoral Power provides Capriles all legal means to audit the process, Britto Garcia warns people not to lower their guard.
Last April 24, in a press conference aired live at Globovision, the anti-Chavez leader affirmed that the Government had "stolen the voting process." According to the defeated candidate, the process has not finished and the electoral arbiter does not exist, the same as 7,575,704 Venezuelans who decided to continue the road to socialism.
After CNE accepted to audit the remaining 46 per cent of the voting the process, Capriles dismissed his claim for an audit and decided to contest the election at Supreme Court of Justice.
This chapter joins to one of the darkest files of the opposition in Venezuela's contemporary history: the 11 April 2002 coup d'état, which resulted in 19 people dead and several wounded among revolutionary and opposing files. In these two opportunities, the media have toed the line of destabilization.
AVN 03/05/2013
