2015: The
Opposition’s Victory in the National Assembly Election Was the Result of U.S. Government Funding
On December
6, 2015, the election for the 167 seats in the National Assembly was held. The
Venezuelan opposition coalition, the Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) won a
majority of the seats. It was the first opposition victory in a national
election since 1999. The United States congratulated the people of Venezuela
“for making their voices heard in a peaceful and democratic way on election
day” [1] The general consensus was that the MUD coalition had won “…by
capitalizing on anger over a shrinking economy, soaring prices and chronic
product shortages.” [2] The official campaign lasted from November 13 to
December 3. One notable feature in the campaign was:” The opposition’s main
campaigning was through local and international media and social media, with
very little street campaigning.” [3]
Six years
later in 2021, Professor Tim Gill of the Department of Sociology at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Christian Lewelling, a doctoral student,
published an article summarizing their research into a U.S. funding program for
the Venezuelan opposition. [4] Their research included a Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) request for documents from the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) which was created by the Reagan Administration to fund political
activists in foreign countries. NED claims its independence, but receives most
of its funding from the U.S. government. NED is required to report its
activities to Congress, which makes it subject to FOIA requests. Their article
summarizes how NED developed a program focused on using Facebook to assist the
Venezuelan opposition: [4]
·
“Beginning
in October 2013, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) provided nearly
$300,000 for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for a program titled Venezuela:
Improved Training and Communications Skills for Political Activists. This
program was designed for activists and party members associated with the
umbrella opposition organization, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). The
NED recounts that while social media remains a key to contemporary political
organizing, the opposition was unequipped in the use of social media. In
response, the NED funded the NDI to provide several services for the Venezuelan
opposition. First, the NDI planned and hosted a seminar outside of Venezuela on
the use of social media for citizen outreach and engagement. In addition, the
NDI created a virtual toolbox hosted on a site also funded by NED. The NDI
hosted a strategy review session with the opposition and hired a consultant to
provide coaching for program participants. With NDI funding and training the
MUD mobilized a voter database that identified and targeted swing voters
through social media. The MUD carried out its social media campaign on
Facebook, which targeted voters with different messages taking into account
their political leanings.
·
“In
the end, the NDI claims credit for the opposition’s success, writing that this
strategy ‘ultimately played an important role in their resounding victory in
the 2015 election’ and that ‘a determining factor in the success of the
coalition in the parliamentary elections of 2015 was a two-year effort prior to
the elections to raise awareness, train and align national and regional
structures of communication of all the MUD parties.”
1. U.S Department of State,
Venezuelan Legislative Elections, December 7, 2015
2. VOA, Venezuela Opposition Takes
Control of Congress in Rowdy Session, January 5, 2016
3. The Causes and Consequences of
Venezuelan Election Results, Venezuelanalysis, December 8, 2015
4. Gill, Tim and C. Lewelling,
Documents Show How the US Government Used Social Media to Intervene in
Venezuela, Jacobin, October 30, 2021
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