NYT reporting CNE will conduct an audit of voting machines... no independent institutions left in Venezuela, the battle's a political one.
Hmm. Here's a thought:
We know Maduro is obviously the placeholder for the true successor to Chavez, just holding the presidency until the powers-that-be behind the scenes have time to coalesce around someone. Note that the Venezuelan Constitution allows the President to essentially replace the Vice President at will, by the way, so the handover wouldn't even be difficult at all if Maduro doesn't go rogue.
However, with the nuisance that Capriles has been causing and Maduro's increasingly erractic behavior, what if they decide it'd just be simpler to let Capriles win? This full audit might then be intentionally removing the pro-Maduro vote tampering (or, if Maduro's narrow victory was legitimate, fixing the results in favor of Capriles)?
Think about it. The PSUV has a huge majority in Parliament, so Capriles wouldn't accomplish anything. Given the extensive state control over the media, it'd be incredibly easy for the PSUV to drum up public opposition to Capriles and force a successful recall vote whenever they wanted. Maduro was picked as the placeholder because he was considered to be a soft-spoken an capable administrator-- given that he's clearly demonstrated this assessment was inaccurate, is it really a stretch to assume that PSUV leadership would pick a useless Capriles presidency to be preferable to an off-the-rails Maduro?
Not sure I even believe this myself, but it's a thought. It'd also explain why Capriles was summoned to meet with the Generals just before the results were announced, which as far as I know we never got an explanation for.
I certainly hope you are right. It does indeed make little sense for the Chavist clique to so eagerly support Maduro if they thought of him as a placeholder only.
Still, it doesn't really make sense that they would announce Maduro's victory and then backtrack to give Capriles the spot instead? It would also be an admission that there has been fraud, and I think the regime would want to avoid that.
