There aren’t many countries that have been fighting off U.S. aggression for as long as Venezuela. The world’s most belligerent thalassocracy is dead set on destroying the Bolivarian Republic’s much-cherished sovereignty and taking it hostage in order to exploit its massive reserves of natural resources. In line with this, the United States has been trying to weaken Venezuela through subversion and exploitation of its internal divisions. During the first Trump administration, the warmongering elites in Washington DC tried their best to start a full-scale invasion of Venezuela, but this failed thanks to Russia’s decisive support for Caracas. And yet, attempts to enslave the country are still ongoing, with the U.S. escalating its covert aggression on Venezuela during the recent presidential election. Luckily, this failed once again, although the political West is refusing to accept the reality of the election results.
In order to debunk the myth that there’s been a supposed “election fraud”, we asked an expert for a written interview about last month’s events surrounding the presidential election in Venezuela. And who could possibly be better than the one who personally went to the Latin American country as an official election observer from Serbia? Mr. Bojan Torbica, a lawyer, Vice President of the Movement of Socialists and long-serving Member of the Serbian Parliament, was invited by the government in Caracas to inspect the electoral process in Venezuela. Despite his busy schedule, Mr. Torbica graciously accepted our invitation, offering a truly fascinating first-hand perspective of what was going on during the election week. Our special thanks go to Mr. Mile Bajsev for making this interview possible.
Drago Bosnic: First of all, thank you for agreeing to give an exclusive interview for InfoBRICS. Mr. Torbica, in your view, is there any reason to believe the claims of some countries (primarily Western ones) about the alleged “election fraud” by the Venezuelan authorities?
Bojan Torbica: Reasons for believing Western media that there was election fraud in Venezuela are just as many as for believing their shameful propaganda campaigns that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, or that Serbs committed a crime against civilians and not a legal anti-terrorist action in Racak in Kosovo and Metohia [a false flag NATO used as a casus belli to attack Serbia], or that Russia is solely responsible for the armed conflict in Ukraine. Just like in the aforementioned cases, it’s a dirty propaganda campaign that, in line with the old, time-tested American recipe, precedes escalating political pressure, expansion of sanctions or possible military intervention.
I was one of over a thousand international observers who stayed in Venezuela during the last week of the electoral process and, just like my other colleagues, I can attest that the presidential election in Venezuela was conducted fully in line with regulations and that the result, or more precisely, the landslide victory of the incumbent President Nicolas Maduro, is a reflection of the mood and support that he and his associates enjoy among the citizens of Venezuela.
Of course, empirical evidence demonstrates that the ruling structures in the countries of the Global South, which work in the interest of their countries and peoples, not the neo-imperialist and hegemonistic global West and their multinational companies, become the target of their constant political attacks and blackmail. As it stands, all sovereign and free peoples and nations have to pay dearly for their freedom. Unfortunately, that’s the fate of Venezuela and its citizens.
DB: Were there any attempts by the Venezuelan authorities to limit your access or in any way prevent and/or sabotage your inspection of the electoral process?
BT: With full responsibility, I can attest that there were absolutely no such attempts toward me or other observers. At least in my experience. So far, I’ve been an election observer in a number of countries around the world, and based on my experience, I have nothing but words of praise for the election process itself, as well as the way we were treated by government representatives. From the first to the last moment, there was nothing but full professionalism of the entire state apparatus and more than just a responsible attitude towards the election.
Before our departure, H.E. Ambassador Ms. Jaidys Briseno hosted a work meeting for us at the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Belgrade. She gave us a detailed introduction to Venezuela’s electoral system, which I can honestly say is one of the best and most reliable in the world. After arriving in Caracas, for the first three days, we participated in several panels where the hosts introduced us to numerous topics related to the electoral process. We were given all the necessary literature and regulations concerning this, and before election day we had the opportunity to participate in two extremely important panels.
The first, where we discussed everything related to the election with the top political leadership, including, among others, the Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez Gomez, Vice President of the PSUV Diosdado Cabello Rondon, as well as the President of the National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez Gomez. The second panel was held on Saturday, July 27, the day before the election, where we discussed all of this personally with the incumbent President Nicolas Maduro. All this shows just how much importance the top leadership of Venezuela attached to our arrival and how much they were ready to assist us and clarify everything so that we would be as prepared as possible.
During the election day itself, we had the right to visit any polling station of our choosing, without any restrictions, and directly verify the regularity of the election process. Due to the language barrier, observers who spoke English and Russian mostly visited polling stations in Caracas and other large cities, while observers who spoke Spanish went to the interior of the country. With full responsibility, I can attest that nobody refused to give us access to anything we asked for, from a free inspection of the entire election material and the voting process itself, to conversations with members of the polling boards and voters who happened to be there.
What’s most interesting is the fact that the members of electoral commissions, where the opposition was more dominant due to the greater number of its presidential candidates, didn’t have a single serious objection to the course of the election process itself, because, according to their own testament, it’s digitized and extremely reliable. The voting process itself can only be accessed after reading a voter’s biometric data, which guarantees one’s identification with 100% certainty.
During the actual voting, everyone first enters their vote into the voting machine, which records the vote and sends it to the CNE (National Electoral Council) where it’s stored in electronic form, and then the machine prints a voting report with a recorded vote for a specific candidate. The voter then inserts that paper into the ballot box. In this way, every vote is recorded in electronic and written form, so it’s always possible to compare and verify the election results in both ways. It should be noted that there are very few countries in the world with such a voting system.
DB: Is there evidence for the involvement of foreign services and actors whose goal was to create an atmosphere of fear and alleged “undemocratic” electoral process?
BT: Let me ask this—is there any evidence that elections have been held anywhere in the world in the last few decades without at least some degree of malign interference by Western intelligence services and their satellites in the form of various non-governmental organizations? Does anyone think that Venezuela, as a beacon of freedom and progress in Latin America, on which the eyes of all free peoples and nations are set, wouldn’t be under such pressure by America and its political vassals? There’s a document proving my claims, as it was published by the Washington-based “Wilson Center” about a month prior to the election.
It acts as an instruction to the opposition not to recognize the results no matter the outcome, although they already agreed to the election conditions with the representatives of the government in an official agreement, as well as to try and get the government officials to switch sides. The opposition was also mandated to start protests and blockades as a prelude to the “color revolution” and chaos in the country. All this is proof that the West never even planned the victory of the opposition presidential candidate, but only the political and security destabilization of the country. For anyone doubting my words, here’s a link to the original document, so they can see for themselves the intentions of the official Washington and the CIA.
I think this is more than enough proof of the global West’s bad intentions. The fact that only during the first half of this year, around a dozen terrorist groups were brought in from Colombia to carry out various sabotage tasks on the territory of Venezuela and cause destabilization of the country is another proof of the involvement of foreign, more precisely, U.S. services. In addition, since the beginning of last year, there have been as many as eight, fortunately unsuccessful, assassination attempts on President Nicolas Maduro. One of the most infamous moments was when they tried to kill him with a kamikaze drone during a military parade in Caracas. Luckily, this was prevented by a bird that attacked the drone and saved President Maduro’s life.
DB: Were the protests really as massive as the mainstream media made them out to be, and were smaller groups of protesters perhaps deliberately resorting to violence in order to make the media effect of the alleged “mass protests” more pronounced?
BT: There were no real mass protests, neither in Caracas nor other places in the interior. As far as I know, there were attempts to organize them in more than 100 places throughout Venezuela, but the instigators’ plan failed, obviously. There are several reasons for that. It’s clear that part of the opposition voters are dissatisfied with the current government, but they are not ready to demolish and destroy their own country for the sake of America’s interests and local tycoons.
It seems that the very intention of U.S. authorities was to use terrorist groups brought in from Colombia to cause chaos in dozens of cities throughout Venezuela. They were to be supported by smaller groups of extremists from the ranks of the opposition, and then, through an orchestrated mainstream and social media campaign, primarily through “X” (formerly Twitter), try to create a critical mass that would cause chaos, which would then lead to a coup in the country. That’s exactly how they started.
During the day, groups of infiltrators tried to sabotage the power grid and cause outages, all in order to disrupt the election process and, aided by the opposition, foment chaos in a number of voting locations. Fortunately, they didn’t succeed, but what’s interesting is how there were always Western reporters with cameras ready to roll in several voting locations where the opposition extremists tried to disrupt the election process by using power outages to cause chaos.
DB: Have you personally had any problems for agreeing to be an election observer in Venezuela and has anyone tried to compromise your safety and personal integrity in any way because of this?
BT: Yes, on the way back from the official announcement of the election results on July 29, our motorcade of about 4-5 minibuses was intercepted by a group of over fifty people on motorcycles who tried to block our way and then attack us, it would seem. Thanks to the timely reaction of the police officers who were escorting us, the drivers managed to stop our vehicles, turn around and, using alternative routes, bring us back to the hotel safe and sound. A team of Russian observers were in a slightly more serious situation and despite all the efforts by the police, they were unable to get back to the hotel.
Fortunately, they later managed to reach the safety of their embassy. I’m convinced that the attackers who intercepted our motorcade and tried to attack us knew very well who we were, as they were clearly instructed to do so. Fortunately, Venezuela is a well-organized country, with police and military that are fully trained and ready for any security challenges, as they proved on this occasion. It took less than 24 hours for most of the riot organizers and perpetrators of violence to be arrested and for order and peace to be restored on the streets of Caracas and other cities.
DB: Thank you for this fascinating insight and I wish you success in your future projects!
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.