Uncle Sam's Election Fixers in Venezuela Get Paid

On Monday, Prensa Latina reported on Uncle Sam's gift of more than $12,000,000 of 'aid' to Sumate, the anti-Chavez 'opposition' group in Venezuela funded by Uncle Sam's election fixers in the National Endowment for Democracy:

The National Assembly announced that hearings on funding will start next week for Sumate (Join Us) group to be able to organize the so-called primaries to be held on August 13.

A key factor in discussions leading to create a parliamentary commission on the issue is the funding of Sumate by the National Endowment for Democracy with money allocated by the US Congress.

This delivery of US public funds was revealed by US lawyer Eva Golinger, who based her arguments on declassified documents. Leaders of this group recognize the US bankrolling of their organization, which is presented as a non-government organization.

President of the Commission, Deputy Jose Albornoz, said that his Patria para Todos Party (PPT) has evidence that at least Sumate has received $12.5 million from US sources.

Rather than promoting democracy, which is the alleged objective of the US National Endowment for Democracy, Sumate has dedicated itself to opposing Chavez, who appears as the winner of next December 3 elections in all surveys carried out so far.

Sumate is one in a long line of groups funded and operated by Uncle Sam aiming to fix elections in a way that favors the interest of its ruling elite. The group reached the pinnacle of its power during the referendum of 2004 but have steadily lost influence since then, both due to the phenomenal defeat they were delivered by Comrade Chavez and also for their lack of a true oppositional program to those proposed and instituted by the Bolivarian government.

We can expect that this group will continue to exist. In some ways, their presence in Venezuela is a good thing, since it embodies Uncle Sam's hypocrisy in trying to fix elections while espousing its meaningless platitudes about democracy.