Photo: TSJ
The curtain rises: a room with several tables is visible, improvised black curtains that delimit the space, kraft cardboard boxes sealed with tape. A cast of men and women, pure extras without a leading character, move the boxes and place them on one of the tables, where they open them. They all wear gloves and masks, as if with professional zeal they were avoiding contaminating the scene of a crime with their fingerprints; in truth, and in more than one sense, they are carrying out forensic work. They have been entrusted with this task by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), whose giant printed logo dominates the stage. “Expertise Area” is written in white letters below the institution’s logo. The curtain falls.
What is the name of the work? The false audit of the electoral records.
This was what could be seen in the footage from the state-run channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) and in the photographs disseminated by the TSJ itself on its social networks in mid-August.
On July 31, amid nationwide protests and the failure of the National Electoral Council (CNE), dominated by the ruling party, to timely disclose detailed information on the results, as well as the proper post-election audits, Nicolás Maduro, plagued by well-founded suspicions of fraud, had gone to the Electoral Chamber of the TSJ, also dominated by Chavismo, to request an unprecedented “electoral contentious appeal” in response to what he described as an “attempted coup d’état.”
On August 10, following Maduro’s request, the TSJ confirmed that it was “undertaking an expert appraisal of all electoral material of probative value” and a few days later, on August 15, the president of the organization, Caryslia Rodríguez, reported that “said appraisal is in the process of being carried out by a group of electoral experts with the highest national and international technical and scientific standards.” That same day, the country saw the first images of the so-called “expert appraisal area.”
At the end of this frenetic schedule, on August 22, Caryslia Rodríguez herself read the ruling, which confirmed that the official results issued by the CNE “are supported by the minutes of the scrutiny” and that these minutes “maintain full coincidence” with the records of the CNE’s totaling room. She stressed to the members of the diplomatic corps present at the event – whose governments, in many cases, demanded and continue to demand an impartial verification of the results – that the ruling closed the case.
As if that were not enough, on the same occasion Rodríguez again highlighted the role of the court’s experts “for their professionalism, dedication and the support demonstrated, as well as the high technical level displayed by national and international experts.”
However, a subsequent analysis of the videos and photographs of those days of expertise, added to the versions collected from various sources familiar with the internal workings of the CNE and the social media profiles of some of those involved, confirm that it was several CNE officials, close to the rector Carlos Quintero Cuevas and at the same time militants of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), who played the role of “experts and experts” in the staging of the TSJ.
The production of the play left nothing to chance. Every detail of the props had its purpose. The costumes, for example, included caps and vests with the initials of the TSJ to give credibility to the impression that they were officials of the court, as well as face masks to make it difficult to recognize the supposed auditors. The video and photo recordings systematically avoided focusing on the QR codes at the bottom of the ballots, so that no one had the opportunity to compare them with the printed ones already released by the Venezuelan opposition, grouped in the Unitary Platform and with those claiming the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia with almost 70% of the votes.
“That was a complete farce,” said one of the qualified sources who spoke to Armando.info on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “There were no protocols for the audit and, since not all parties were involved, it is simply a flawed process,” he added.
More details at Armando.info.
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