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Freedom to Protest for democracy in USA, Guyana, Venezuela  

Aug 09, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

The protests (and state sponsored violence against protesters) for respecting the will of voters (democracy) in Venezuela (that voted last July 28) brings back memories of responses to similar protests in Guyana and America during the long struggle waged in Guyana and USA for free and fair elections in Guyana.

The government in Guyana responded with harassment, intimidation, and brute force, as has been occurring in Venezuela, including killing of polling agents and opposition figures, against those who opposed electoral fraud in 1968 and all elections thereafter until the restoration of democratic elections in October 1992. In contrast, in the democratic USA, the police or agents of the American government did not (and do not) engage in violent repressions of protests as in Guyana and Venezuela. In USA, people are free to engage in peaceful protests without fear of being victimized at their jobs and or violently attacked – that were (are) routine responses in Guyana and Venezuela.

Electoral riggings in Guyana post-independence thru 1992 were well documented and never disputed. But the riggings could not be overturned in a court. In Guyana, as in Maduro’s Venezuela, the regime controlled the electoral institution and the court. No challenge to electoral fraud was successful in either country. And any attempt to mount peaceful protests were met with a brutish response from agents sponsored by the state as has been happening in neighbouring Venezuela.

The July 28 Venezuela election disputed result is in court. The verdict on the disputed election count in Venezuela will favour the ruling party as its appointees and members stacked the court.  The court never ruled against Maduro in previous challenges and will not do so now. Already, the court ruled that Maduro’s challenger Edmundo Gonzalez is in contempt of court after refusing to answer a summons to attend a certification of the July 28 election results. This makes any possibility of a successful challenge to the official result that Maduro won virtually nil, not dissimilar to what occurred in Guyana.

In Guyana, disputed elections from 1968 thru 1992 and the 1978 rigged referendum, as in Venezuela on July 28, led to a wave of protests across the country.  This writer participated in protests in Guyana against the 1968 and 1973 elections and witnessed violence against peaceful protesters. Migrating to USA to pursue tertiary education in 1977, this writer and a few others pioneered a movement against electoral fraud and for the restoration of democratic governance. Countless protest events were organized by the newly formed group. The Guyanese diaspora in NY and in Washington DC and other cities launched protests, rallies, marches, picketing exercises, leafletting, and other activities to focus attention on rights violations in Guyana and were never harassed, intimidated, or attacked by American police forces. The participants in pro-democracy activities never experienced thuggery and American security forces never rounded up protesters or dissidents and or raided homes to find them as was common in Guyana and currently underway in Venezuela. The American people have been supportive of movements that promote democracy abroad unlike in Guyana where people post-independence have been fearful of consequences in joining or supporting a movement against powerful political forces that have had a stranglehold on power. It is because of the solidarity and support of the American government and her people that Guyana has become a democracy since 1992. The attempt to thwart democratic governance in Guyana from January 2019 to August 2, 2020 was vigorously condemned and opposed by the American Administration.

Venezuelans should continue to mount a peaceful challenge to electoral fraud and demand that the will of the voters be respected. A people’s right to protest is inviolable and be respected as in America, the greatest democracy.

Yours sincerely,

Vishnu Bisram

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