As in many countries in today’s capitalist world, albeit with its specificities, in Venezuela the bourgeoisie and its regime respect electoral processes for the election of presidents, governors, mayors and deputies. In Venezuela, indefinite re-election is allowed. It is also possible by referendum to remove the national president from office mid-term. The 1999 Constitution established the "coexistence" of five powers, one of which is the Electoral Power, represented by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

In the 1990s, the two-party model, through which the bourgeoisie had resolved political control of the masses, entered a crisis. Traditional parties, in a context of economic and social crisis, had lost their ability to stifle the discontent of the masses and keep them subservient to capital. In this context, Chavismo emerged as a bourgeois movement with a populist and "leftist" discourse that succeeded in solving the problem of governability, displacing the old parties and winning their social and electoral base. With widespread popularity, chavismo became the ideal administrator of the interests of the bourgeoisie, strengthening and expanding capitalist profits, increasing the rate of exploitation of workers, destroying and controlling the various mass organizations, and especially trade unions, ensuring the social peace demanded by national and multinational corporations, mainly linked to oil revenues.

The program of Chavismo, which proclaimed itself "socialist" and gained the support of various movements and parties of the opportunist left, both parliamentary and "guerrilla", was fully capitalist, like that of its opponents, with a high dose of populism and the traditional phenomenon of corruption. While proclaiming itself "socialist", Chavismo proposed from the beginning the defense of private property and the market, the fight against latifundia (read growth of agro-industrial capitalism in the countryside), accompanied by the demagogic offer of the "democratization of capital" (read redistribution of monopoly control of the means of production), the defense of the national economy (i.e., support for local, non-monopoly entrepreneurs in the face of the penetration of transnational capital).

It promoted a scheme similar to the "New Deal" with which Roosevelt dealt with the Great Depression in the United States, relying, among other strategies, on so-called "Missions" and "Great Missions", centered on using oil revenues to stimulate demand for goods.

Chavismo claimed to move in a "multipolar" world, on the basis of which it formed alliances with China, Russia, Cuba, countries of the Arab world, etc., while being in the "backyard" of the United States. It has also joined the São Paulo Forum, an organization in which the international opportunist left converges, and has promoted the weakening of North American influence in Central and South America, fostering the sharpening of inter-imperialist contradictions on the continent.

The political model promoted by chavismo has paved the way for multiple electoral appointments under the so-called "protagonist and participatory democracy", which, more than in the past, has alienated workers from the class struggle and made the working class raise the reactionary banners of homeland, sovereignty and defense of the national economy, waved demagogically, given the huge commitments to multinational corporations. In this context, chavismo won the majority of presidential, parliamentary and regional elections for about 20 years.

However, since 2012, when Hugo Chávez won the presidential election by a small margin only to die of cancer, Chavismo has begun to wear down and in each electoral process has won with increasing difficulty, despite the extensive use of the resources of state institutions and the intervention of both other pro-government parties and various tame opposition parties.

By 2024 Chavismo was widely rejected by the population, including its own social base. Although none of the opposition candidates succeeded in capturing the sympathies of the masses, discontent eventually funneled to the candidate who had the most economic and porpagandist support, creating expectations of a change in government.

Throughout this period, workers were distanced from the class struggle and their real demands through the drugs of electoralism, legalism and parliamentarianism. This was also joined by sectors of the Stalinist and Trotskist left, which always defended the electoral institution and promoted a plan of nationalist reforms that a so-called "workers’ government", capitalist like all others, was supposed to implement.

The electoral system has been automated and provides for multiple stages of verification, touted as sheltered from attempts at fraud. Both the parties supporting the government and those supporting opposition candidates agree on this.

With the highest oil and gas reserves, after a process of declining production, Venezuela ranks sixth among U.S. oil suppliers in 2024, and it is predictable that the struggle for government in Venezuela will be associated with strategies for control of this energy commodity, the subject of inter-imperialist clashes. Electoral and nonelectoral contentions between local political and business groups are part of the inter-imperialist clashes, which see Venezuela, its natural wealth and geographic location as factors to be used to their advantage.

Venezuela is not experiencing a confrontation between capitalism and socialism, as the media and social networks want to present it, but a confrontation between capitalists, in the face of which the working class must maintain its independence, with its own program and historical north.

With the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Venezuela, a model of high profitability has been established for both multinational corporations and mafias associated with the local government, as Venezuelan oil is sold cheaply on the black market, opening up space for various businesses that funnel capital into corruption networks and increase the profits of international consortiums.

This year’s elections with the different bourgeois factions in struggle

Elections for a new president were held on July 28. In the early hours of the 29th the CNE announced the prevailing and re-election as president of Nicolás Maduro, who will govern until 2031. But on the same day the CNE declared that it had not counted all the votes and had not submitted the minutes of every polling station. The main opposition candidate denounced fraud and did not acknowledge the results, sparking street protests, some spontaneous, some linked to underclass thuggery paid for by some parties.

Internationally, many governments have questioned the election result, which has become a terrain for inter-imperialist confrontation. On Aug. 2, the CNE published its second bulletin, with 96.87 percent of votes registered, confirming Maduro’s victory, but it did not present results by polling station and by endorsement of ballots.

Maduro, that is, the parties, mafias and multinational corporations that support him, will continue to administer the interests of the bourgeoisie and imperialist groups and will continue to press for the super-exploitation of the wage-earners.

In a sense, Maduro’s victory expresses the prevalence of interests, primarily U.S. interests, although this seems to contradict U.S. sanctions announcements. But the other nine candidates, had they won, would also have represented the same interests.

Moreover, if movements and parties such as the Stalinists of the Venezuelan "Communist" party and the Trotskists had been allowed to present a "workers’ candidate" or a "truly Chavista candidate, " they would still have embraced the bourgeois program and protected the business of big business.

Democracy is the bourgeoisie’s form of government, which allows the exploited to elect the representatives of the exploiters in public institutions, based on the illusion that the state, which remains bourgeois, and the laws, which are also bourgeois, represent everyone equally. The proletariat has the task, the necessity. the duty, the challenge to break with these illusions and the manipulations of the various politicians that lead it to hope that its situation will change and improve by electing new presidents, governors or parliamentarians. Never through voting will the proletariat find a way out of capitalist exploitation.

Chavismo’s continued control of the government implies the use of repression that is increasingly evident. It is to be expected that the loss of its social base will continue to advance and that this will be reflected in the upcoming regional and parliamentary elections.

What matters is that the proletariat, through its defensive trade union organizations, manages to break with electoralism, assume its class independence and advance in the unity of action of its claim struggles.

The Venezuelan government will have to deal with the international climate, with a group of states contesting the election results. Sooner or later, however, Europe and the United States will eventually recognize its legitimacy, because there are many business and geopolitical alignments at stake. The allegations of fraud will remain as such, soon dissolving to avoid interference in the oil and gas business of U.S. and European companies, such as Chevron, Eni and Repsol, but also of China and the BRICS countries, which already have chavismo support in the Venezuelan government. The "international isolation" will not go so far as to paralyze business and will leave room for multiple negotiations, more secret than public, as no multinational will want to be without some of the oil, gas and other riches available in Venezuela.

The U.S., which sees Venezuela as part of its strategy to control the oil market, knows that it must graduate its pressure on the Venezuelan government, since the latter’s relations with the BRICS group would be strengthened and provide a counterweight to its imperialist claims. On the other hand, a surrender of the Chavistas with handing over the government to the opposition does not seem possible, as it would clash with the interests of the adverse imperialist bloc led by China.

The governments of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico are conducting negotiations with the Venezuelan government, and that of the United States has expressed approval for these efforts, which confirms a willingness to reach a conciliatory agreement that does not disrupt business, even if this agreement contemplated the scenario of a repeat presidential election.

Allegations of electoral fraud brought inter‑bourgeois confrontation to the streets

After the elections, pro-government and opposition parties insisted on distancing workers from the struggles for their demands, leading to a clash between those who supported Maduro and those who denounced electoral fraud that would have prevented the opposition candidate’s victory. The working class must not allow itself to be manipulated in this way. The only struggle that interests it is the class struggle, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Workers must unite, organize and fight independently for their economic and social demands.

While international organizations and opposition parties demanded verification of the election results, the government immediately activated the repression of demonstrations, using both military and police forces and so-called "colectivos", composed of underclassmen and thugs, raising the banner of fighting terrorism and fascism. The statistics of dead, wounded and detained emerged immediately.

The next step was the persecution and arrest of opposition party leaders, accused of paying criminals to provoke violence in the streets. In fact, both bourgeois fronts recruited among criminals to pilot these clashes.

The government, in addition to "anti-terrorist" actions, defended the election results. Maduro appealed to the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice to verify the votes in the face of prolonged silence from the CNE, street mobilizations called by the opposition, and pressure from international organizations and governments.

A week after the elections neither the opposition presented evidence of fraud nor the CNE of Maduro’s victory. There has only been in the social networks the "virtual" clash between the government’s opinion and that of the oppositions, which, with foreign support, allegedly promoted a coup d’état and terror, foiled by the government. And in this media brawl any possibility of independent political response by the working class was prevented.

"No to fraud, respect for the will of the people expressed in the vote", this was the slogan of Trotskist opportunism, which made clear its commitment to bourgeois democracy and interclassism. The Stalinist "Communist" Party of Venezuela called for "the establishment of a popular-democratic front for the defense of the constitution and sovereignty". The opportunists, who claim to present themselves as a left opposed to the right, actually converge with all agents of the bourgeoisie to promote the defense of democracy, parliamentarism and the constitution. The cries against rigging and in defense of the right to vote allow the bourgeoisie to draw workers away from the struggles for their demands, the class struggle and the anti-capitalist revolutionary path.

Meanwhile, the government has announced the construction of two prisons where those arrested during the protests and those associated with "terrorist plans" will be locked up. Military and police actions have already brought more than 2,000 detainees there. Chavismo spokesmen have denounced that the right-wing’s destabilizing plans include strikes and work stoppages, thus laying the groundwork for repressing workers’ struggles by presenting them as part of terrorist plans. All this repressive apparatus, used today against the masses dragged by bourgeois factions, is actually ready to confront the proletariat with the violence of the bourgeois state when wage earners regain their class independence and unite in mobilization and strike against capitalist exploitation.

Nothing new under the sun

The new government will keep wage earners burdened with low wages, unemployment and poor health and public service conditions. The government, pro-government and opposition parties and union cliques will continue in their false propaganda to prevent workers from understanding the causes of the economic and social crisis and the class and geopolitical interests at stake.

The various cliques of trade unionists have invited people to vote for different presidential candidates, pro-government or pro-opposition. With this action, the union leaderships once again showed their role as supporters of the capitalist regime and allies of the bosses.

The only way out of the crisis will emerge from the workers’ mobilization and strike, freed from electoralism and parliamentarianism.

The new president will lead a government that will continue to administer the interests of the bourgeoisie and imperialism, which will assume the defense of the national economy. The vaunted economic recovery will only be possible on the basis of low wages, long working hours, unsafe working conditions, and curtailed health care and public services. The new government will continue to shift the burden of the crisis onto the workers, and announcements of economic growth will be accompanied by hunger, misery and unemployment for the majority.

Considering that right now a family of five needs at least the equivalent of $1,200 a month to access all basic goods and services, workers must unite and resume the strike, without notice, without minimum services and indefinitely, with demands for a significant increase in wages and pensions and safe workplace conditions and environments.

This will require workers to move beyond the treacherous union, confederation and federation directions that keep them divided and demobilized. It is necessary for real class unions to emerge in the thick of the struggle. On this road it is important to promote assemblies, grassroots organizing, in companies and workplaces. But above all, workers must organize locally, integrating active, retired and unemployed workers outside the companies and forming a regional and national network. All of these grassroots organizations must come together in a Unified Class Union Front, in which workers unite regardless of which union they are affiliated with and regardless of their political or party preference, nationality or occupation.

While opportunist parties and trade unionists call on workers to unite in defense of the homeland and the national economy, this Single Trade Union Front must promote unity for winning higher wages and pensions and for paying full wages to the unemployed. While opportunists and trade unionists promote unity between the exploited and the exploiters, this Trade Union Single Front must promote the unity of the working class against its domestic or foreign, public or private, national or multinational exploiters.

All these tragedies suffered by wage-workers and the oppressed masses, resulting from capitalist exploitation, can only be overcome by the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement by a communist society. Only communism will end the regime of insane overproduction, waste and perpetual threats to the planet’s ecology.

But this can never be achieved through the methods of democracy, voting and parliamentarianism. It can only be achieved through the seizure of power by the only force that can transform society: the working class, led by the International Communist Party. The seizure of political power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the political goal to be pursued by the workers’ movement worldwide in opposition to bourgeois democracy. All immediate claim struggles must converge in this political direction.