to clarify a specific point about the elections in venezuela, though.

the corporatist media presents a half-truth when they point out that the opposition doesn't take part in the elections. that much is actually true - and i don't think anybody debates the point. what the media declines to clarify is that the opposition routinely boycotts the elections.

even if maduro were to give in to the ridiculous demand from the eu to call an election (and, can maduro demand a new vote on brexit while we're at it?), recent history suggests that the opposition would be unlikely to take part in it.

there is consequently somewhat of a level of uncertainty attached to the outcome, but it isn't due to state repression. the reality is that it's not entirely clear just how big the opposition actually is, because they've been boycotting elections for the last ten years. marches are a bad metric - they could be representative of a very well organized bourgeois minority, as is generally assumed, or they could be representative of a much larger bloc. but, they don't vote. so, we don't know - we're robbed of the ability to compare what we see in the pictures to what we can quantitatively analyse, and are left to our biases to try and work it through.

they want to make you think that the opposition is outlawed, oppressed, intimidated - and that is a lie. rather, they are holding strong to what are now very old accusations, always presented without proof, to uphold a years-long boycott.

and, we just don't know what the numbers really are, at this point.