Politics

Opposition Reacts (sort of) to CNE's Hope-Destroying 20% Statement

We look through the opposition Twittersphere to take the temperature of an opposition on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Anabella Abadi M.

As we all pretty much expected and feared, CNE announced deeply unfavorable conditions to collect the 20% of manifestaciones de voluntad needed to activate a recall referendum, pretty much killing any possibilities of celebrating it in 2016, or, really, ever.

The reaction around the MUDosphere was basically…

Just after the announcements, Twitter became the place for many to express their discontent  because, as our very own Naky tweeted:

“Though the decision is not surprising, it doesn’t makes it less outrageous and violating the Constitution should have consequences.”

And we -as most- were eager to hear MUD’s opinion. Profesor Briceño captured the zeitgeist, saying:

Roughly:

“Pardon my French, but after the kick to the groin the CNE just gave MUD we hope they won’t come out with a bunch of bullshit rhetoric.”

A couple of hours later, Jesús “Chuo” Torrealba -— speaking on MUD’s behalf — said “seguimos en sesión permanente. En las próximas nos pronunciaremos… ” -we remain in permanent session and in the coming [hours] we will make a statement.

He also asked the members of Unidad, the executive secretaries of the parties, campaign managers and leaders to keep a “prudent silence” in the coming hours.

Henrique Capriles followed the orders and tweeted:

“With full information and the unity the country demands we will respond! We are at the service of Venezuelans!”

The next morning Capriles also tweeted:

“To all those asking, now what will we do? TODAY at 7 p.m. through all our social media we’ll speak #PreguntaCapriles”

and,

“They are 20%! We are 80%! I am sure that MUD will rise to the historic moment we’re facing.”

We wonder: will he wait for a proper announcement from MUD or will he be making the announcements himself? Not sure at this point.

Others presented the announcement of the CNE as a victory of sorts. Juan Miguel Matheus, deputy of the National Assembly and National Secretary of Doctrine of PJ, tweeted:

“Despite all the adversities put in place by the government we managed a date for the 20% #RecallIn2016”.

And thought Julio Borges didn’t tweet himself, he did RT Edison Ferrer:

“#RecallIn2016. We’ve defeated them plaing with unfair rules. They can set up all the illegal obstacles they can think of, we have what it takes to defeat them!”

In a more formal way, Voluntad Popular issued a press release saying:

“Faced with the unconstitutional and unfair conditions accorded by the CNE board, today more than ever it becomes imperative to activate all of Venezuela on the streets, just as we did on September 1st, to pressure for the expression of the people’s votes in a recall to come this 2016.”

Maria Corina Machado, whose infamous “expropiar es robar” has been upstaged by her more recent “conmigo no cuenten”, tweeted

 

“The conditions CNE is seeking to impose cannot be accepted. The recall must be held in 2016.”

She also proposed a rather… uhm… well…curious parliamentary strategy -to say the least:

“It’s clear that the conditions CNE imposed are designed to deny a Recall in 2016. If that happens, the National Assembly must unseat Maduro due to his nationality.”

Henry Ramos didn’t tweet about the announcements and neither did Delsa Solorzano. Let’s assume they’re following Chuo’s call for silence.

Though there are no final agreements yet, during his radio show La Fuerza es la Unión, Chuo said “what comes next is a massive, constitutional, peaceful and forceful protest in defense of the rights of the people and the Constitution”.

Just like we been doing for the last 6 months, we’ll have to wait and see.

 

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