Juan Guaido

@kazetnagorra said
Or they might have lost an unfair election, legitimizing Maduro's victory.

The claim that the election was "unfair" is pretty unconvincing. What evidence supports such an assertion?

BY refusing to contest the election, they left no legal avenues to remove Maduro. IF they want violence and civil war, it was a good move; if they want Maduro out short of such measures, it was a poor one.

Considering that turnout in 2018 was a mere 46.1% (and a 1/3 of those voted against Maduro) while 2013 turnout was 80%, it seems highly likely that Maduro would have been defeated if the opposition hadn't boycotted esp. if they had united behind one candidate. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/21/venezuela-elections-nicolas-maduro-wins-second-term

This whole crisis could well have been averted.

@no1marauder said
The claim that the election was "unfair" is pretty unconvincing. What evidence supports such an assertion?

BY refusing to contest the election, they left no legal avenues to remove Maduro. IF they want violence and civil war, it was a good move; if they want Maduro out short of such measures, it was a poor one.

There were certainly problems with the 2018 election; some major opposition figures were barred from running for various reasons. [...] The claim that the election was "unfair" is pretty unconvincing.

?

@kazetnagorra said

There were certainly problems with the 2018 election; some major opposition figures were barred from running for various reasons. [...] The claim that the election was "unfair" is pretty unconvincing.

?

Those comments are not contradictory; there can be "problems" with an election yet the resulting election might not be "unfair". It is a "problem" that Donald Trump could win an election for US President while getting 3 million less votes but that doesn't mean the election was "unfair" in the sense of being illegitimate.

I don't think Capriles and the others should have been banned from running, but as far as the actual election I don't see convincing evidence that it was run in a way that would have made Maduro's victory a foregone conclusion.

@metal-brain said
Nope. Alex Jones is a Trump supporter and a traitor to his own cause. I don't like him at all.

Oh, I dunno, most of your conspiracy theories are as stupid as his.

@suzianne said
Oh, I dunno, most of your conspiracy theories are as stupid as his.

I don't recall expressing a conspiracy theory on this thread. What are you talking about?

@metal-brain said
I don't recall expressing a conspiracy theory on this thread. What are you talking about?

Oh, I dunno, MB, light up another one.

@suzianne said
Oh, I dunno, MB, light up another one.

Was it this?

"Empires are like organized crime"

That is not a conspiracy theory, it is an observation.

@metal-brain said
Was it this?

"Empires are like organized crime"

That is not a conspiracy theory, it is an observation.

Well, you did end that paragraph like an extremist would, saying a specific individual should have been executed.

@js357 said
Well, you did end that paragraph like an extremist would, saying a specific individual should have been executed.

Kissinger advised Nixon to overthrow a democratically elected leader and replace him with Pinochet, a brutal dictator. People were killed in that coup, then there were subsequent killings to brutally oppress.

That doesn't deserve execution? How is my wanting Kissinger to face justice extreme?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jun/12/chile.pinochet

https://www.smh.com.au/world/why-the-law-wants-a-word-with-kissinger-20020430-gdf8k1.html

https://sanjuanhorseshoe.com/kissingers-extradition-to-uruguay-sought-over-operation-condor/

https://www.globalresearch.ca/huge-defeat-for-imperialists-the-u-s-broke-its-teeth-in-venezuela/5672236

The post that was quoted here has been removed

True; nevertheless, "not the same" is not the same thing as "none at all", and all the legitimacy Gaudio has is that of Batista: the CIA supports him.