As predicted in the June edition of the Socialist Standard, Maduro has ‘won’ the presidential election just held in Venezuela.
Of course he has not won. It is clear from all the evidence available that, though he banned his chief opponents from standing, far more people voted for his opponent than for him. Maduro had stated he would win ‘by hook or by crook’ and that is what he has done. With the country in a piteous economic state, it is thought that many more people than the 7.8 million who have already gone will now attempt to leave.
What we have here is another example among many of state capitalist countries with tyrannical regimes (e.g. Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam North Korea) falsely calling themselves socialist.