Jimmy Villalta/Zuma
The aftermath of Sunday’s elections in Venezuela has been sustained chaos, with both incumbent President Nicolás Maduro and his opponent Edmundo González Urrutia declaring victory. Masses of protesters have poured into the streets, calling on Maduro to step down. Hundreds have been arrested; some have been killed.
In the United States, pro-Trump disinformation peddlers seized the opportunity to darkly warn that similar chaos and authoritarianism would befall the United States if their candidate loses in November. It’s a topsy-turvy bit of discourse that has political figures who aren’t bothered by Trump’s attempts to stay in office after losing taking sides against another leader who they argue is doing the same thing.
Prominent disinformation peddlers declared that the US under Biden is also in the grip of an authoritarian leader.
Venezuela’s recent voting was marred by allegations of impropriety by Maduro’s United Socialist Party, who have become crushingly unpopular over his 11-year reign, as inflation has soared, social programs gone bankrupt, and millions of people fled. This week wasn’t the first time forces supporting Maduro have been accused of election interference, and obvious attempts at voter suppression were on display in the lead-up to this election, as critics warned international election observers were being kept from monitoring voting.
But when Maduro quickly declared an improbable victory on Sunday night—with choreographed fireworks streaking Caracas’ skies—prominent conspiracy theorists and disinformation peddlers in the US sensed a moment of possibility; they declared that the United States under Biden is, too, in the grip of an authoritarian leader, and shared scenes of unrest from Venezuela as a prequel to what could happen here if Trump is, in his supporters’ minds, unjustly........