MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela: Proselytism, pro-government advantage and hunger on the eve of the presidential election; the crisis gets worse

IPYS denounces the abuse of resources and state assets in the electoral campaign, as information and propaganda prevails in state radio stations.

A few hours before the presidential election of May 20 in Venezuela, which is not recognized by dozens of countries in the region and is classified as “fraud” by the opposition of that country, official statements and messages favorable to the candidate and current president , Nicolás Maduro, have flooded the programs of the open media in Venezuela, according to a report by the Press Institute and Venezuela Society (IPYS).

The Venezuelan media, specifically open radio and television, controlled mostly by the state, have been characterized by strong censorship and self-censorship for fear of reprisals by government regulatory agencies in recent years.

This limitation of the information flow, coupled with a precarious coverage of information and limited access to a free Internet, which is where the independent media of the country have been limited to circulate, have generated great features of misinformation in various regions of the country and in various sectors of the society.

According to IPYS, cyber attacks, the denial of official credentials to the press for coverage, the dissemination of proselytizing content through state institutions and media, the difficulties to circulate through printed media, attacks on cameramen, as well as measures sanctions to radio stations, were some of the patterns that prevailed between Monday 7 to Wednesday May 16, just three days before the presidential elections.

When financed by the State, IPYS denounces the abuse of resources and state assets in the electoral campaign, as information and propaganda prevails on state radio stations. In addition, no leader of opposition tendency had a voice during the day of monitoring carried out by the press organization.

The opposition campaign of a former chavista

Henri Falcón, a 56-year-old former official who was expelled by the opposition coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) for failing to follow the abstention strategy but, despite his lack of prominence, is the main opposition figure in the election, closed a docile electoral campaign in which he ran as a “transition” politician, seeking to overcome the boycott of the opposition organizations as a way to take advantage of an opportunity to reverse the economic, political and social crisis.

“Careful and these are not the last democratic elections in Venezuela!” Warned Falcón. The lawyer and former military says that “there are sectors that are wrong, are calling to nothing, are calling for the worsening of the crisis”, trying to convince voters to go to the polls in a vote criticized by the opacity of the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Meanwhile, the crisis is getting worse

Fraudulent elections with a predictable result are not what worries the most in the streets of Venezuela and its capital, Caracas. City that was cataloged in 2017 as the most dangerous in the world, occupying the number one position among the most violent cities with a total of 130.35 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

According to the Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (CCSPJP) of Mexico, 4 of the 10 most dangerous cities in the world are in Venezuela.
During that year, 27,000 murders occurred only in Caracas, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV).

Economically, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects prices to rise in Venezuela by 1,800,000% in two years and inflation to reach 13,000% by the end of this year.

However, despite the belief that the results of these elections are sung, for some this is a last chance to get out of the serious crisis that Venezuela is going through. “Not voting is voting for Maduro. I will vote for Henri Falcón, I say it clearly, and then I will be evaluating his administration. To me, if Henri Falcón invites me to be in his government, I will say no. But what is happening is inadmissible. This Government has betrayed Chavez's legacy... How is it possible that we have children with diphtheria or malaria? The truth is that the president has become a dictator”, said Ana Elisa Osorio, former Environment Minister with Hugo Chávez.