Welcome to MintCast, the official podcast of MintPress News. I'm your host Mnar Adley.

President Nicolas Maduro is celebrating this week after a clear victory in the National Assembly elections that took place on December 6th. Helped by a partial opposition boycott of the process, the ruling socialist coalition led by President Nicolas Maduro received over 69% of the votes cast and won a massive 253 of the 277 seats in the National Assembly, the only branch of government not under its control previously.

While the government is celebrating, the low turnout of 31% has many worried its support is decreasing, although the vote was held in the middle of a pandemic. The US government, who has long considered Venezuela an official enemy, decried the process before it had even begun, instructing opposition parties to boycott the election, even sanctioning those that disobeyed their orders.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to Twitter to call Venezuela’s elections illegitimate describing Maduro as a dictator and strongman, despite the fact that there were 1,500 election observers and 300 representatives from 34 countries.

Joining me today are three people who know the country well, Max Blumenthal, Anya Parampil, Adrienne Pine and Alan MacLeod.

Max is an award-winning journalist and author and editor of The Grayzone who has been reporting from Venezuela this week and observed the elections. His latest book is “The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump.” He is also the co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast.

Anya is a former producer and host for In Question at RT America who now hosts her own show, Red Lines, which you can find at TheGrayZone YouTube and other platforms.

Adrienne is an associate professor of anthropology at the American University in Washington DC. In 2019, she occupied the Venezuelan embassy in DC to prevent it falling into the hands of US-backed self-declared president Juan Guaidó. Like Max and Anya, she observed the recent elections close up, travelling to Venezuela to be an election observer.

Our fourth guest is MintPress’ senior Staff Writer Alan Macleod. Alan is an expert in Western media coverage of South America. After completing his PhD on the topic in 2017, he published five peer-reviewed articles on how media distort the image of Venezuela. He is also the author of the book “Bad News from Venezuela: 20 years of fake news and misreporting.”
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfs2KFnCNTY