SUMATE: You? No! We, Yes!
Posted by Charlie Hardy - April 27, 2006 at 8:53 am
Venezuela has an AGO (anti-governmental organization) known internationally, SUMATE. SUMATE pretends to be an electoral watchdog, overseeing Venezuelan elections. But it has also been the self-designated keystone in the effort to oust President Hugo Chávez from the presidency.
The word “suma” in Spanish means to add and the word “súmate” is something of an order that you should add. In the practical order, however, it has meant that SUMATE itself does the adding and then informs the public of the results. The problem is that whether SUMATE adds papayas, mangos or bananas, the results are always the same: Chávez must go.
In February 2003, less than ten months after the failed coup against Chávez, SUMATE collected millions of signatures. If you enter their offices, you can see neatly bound books covering several walls. When you look inside the books, you discover they not only contain signatures, but the lengthy documents people were invited to sign. If those signing the papers had actually read the printing on the pages they were signing, it would have taken years to gather those millions of signatures.
On that occasion citizens were asked to sign for a variety of initiatives ranging from calling for a presidential referendum (before it was legally time to do so) to giving a round of applause to the petroleum workers who had sabotaged the Venezuelan oil industry and caused the loss of billions of dollars to the nation. SUMATE truly didn’t know what it wanted other than millions of signatures and so they asked people who didn’t like the Chávez government to simply sign, sign, sign. And they did -- to no avail.
The next year, for some strange reason, SUMATE accepted money from the U.S. government. It was a piddling sum according to SUMATE. The National Endowment for Democracy (the NED) only approved $53,400 for them. They say that they really didn’t need the money. After all, if they already had thousands of volunteers to do the collecting and thousands of computers to do the tallying, what was $53,400 more in their coffers? (By 2004, SUMATE’s expenses were almost a million dollars according to their financial report.)
In time, Narco News reporter Jeremy Bigwood and Eva Golinger let the news out and Venezuelans began to ask if it was a benevolent deed on the part of the U.S. or if one country was meddling in the affairs of another.
President George W. Bush didn’t think so. He invited Maria Corina Machado, SUMATE’s leader and principal spokesperson to the Oval Office for photographs together. Condoleezza Rice met with her also. These were honors that not even the Venezuelan ambassador to the U.S. had been granted. Not bad for a woman who was being accused of treason within her own country.
Now we come to April 2006. As of the present moment, four men have announced that they plan to be candidates in the December elections. However, the consensus is that if there is more than one candidate, there will be no possibility of beating President Chávez. The question is: how to decide who the one candidate will be?
No problem. Venezuela has the answer: SUMATE! After screaming daily since 2002 about the composition and work of the National Electoral Commission, SUMATE has announced that primary elections are the answer to the question and SUMATE has self-appointed itself as being in charge of the process.
If any contemporary dictionary were looking for current descriptions of the words “hypocrisy” or “ridiculous,” SUMATE would be perfect for the task.
SUMATE seems to be following the example of another Venezuelan sideshow, Queremos Eligir (We want to elect). After repeated elections in Venezuela, its leader, Elias Santana, still shouts, “We want to elect.” But who ever elected Elias? And who elected Maria Corina and her SUMATE team to rule the elector process?
One of the candidates, senior citizen Teodoro Petkoff, refuses to say that primaries are the only was to decide the single candidate to oppose Chávez. I don’t blame him. SUMATE appears to be a clone of the Primera Justicia party, which boasts it only has young and beautiful people in its ranks. It also has a higher percentage of members who speak perfect English than would be true of Teodoro’s friends. Teodoro, I wouldn’t trust SUMATE if I were you.
One thing about SUMATE that seems to be clear at this moment is that they do not lack money. Monday they sponsored a half page ad in El Universal proclaiming that, “The woman is the greatest miracle of nature.” I’ll go along with that. I just wonder where they got the 9,780,000 bolivares (about $4,550.00) to pay for the ad.
Yes, SUMATE is a fascinating and also strange organization supposedly supporting democracy through elections. But during the December 2005 elections for the Venezuelan congress, SUMATE asked those opposed to the Chávez government to not participate in the elections. Instead they were urged to go to church that Sunday morning. Now they are asking those supporting the government to not vote in SUMATE’s primaries and are searching for ways to assure that they can’t. Their next action will probably be to recommend that these citizens go to church that day instead of voting. Not a bad idea. SUMATE could use all the prayers it can get. More than the blessing of George W. Bush’s smile and money, SUMATE needs a true miracle to make it a credible organization.
Other essays by Charles Hardy can be found on his personal blog Cowboyincaracas.com . You may write him at cowboyincaracas@yahoo.com.
The word “suma” in Spanish means to add and the word “súmate” is something of an order that you should add. In the practical order, however, it has meant that SUMATE itself does the adding and then informs the public of the results. The problem is that whether SUMATE adds papayas, mangos or bananas, the results are always the same: Chávez must go.
In February 2003, less than ten months after the failed coup against Chávez, SUMATE collected millions of signatures. If you enter their offices, you can see neatly bound books covering several walls. When you look inside the books, you discover they not only contain signatures, but the lengthy documents people were invited to sign. If those signing the papers had actually read the printing on the pages they were signing, it would have taken years to gather those millions of signatures.
On that occasion citizens were asked to sign for a variety of initiatives ranging from calling for a presidential referendum (before it was legally time to do so) to giving a round of applause to the petroleum workers who had sabotaged the Venezuelan oil industry and caused the loss of billions of dollars to the nation. SUMATE truly didn’t know what it wanted other than millions of signatures and so they asked people who didn’t like the Chávez government to simply sign, sign, sign. And they did -- to no avail.
The next year, for some strange reason, SUMATE accepted money from the U.S. government. It was a piddling sum according to SUMATE. The National Endowment for Democracy (the NED) only approved $53,400 for them. They say that they really didn’t need the money. After all, if they already had thousands of volunteers to do the collecting and thousands of computers to do the tallying, what was $53,400 more in their coffers? (By 2004, SUMATE’s expenses were almost a million dollars according to their financial report.)
In time, Narco News reporter Jeremy Bigwood and Eva Golinger let the news out and Venezuelans began to ask if it was a benevolent deed on the part of the U.S. or if one country was meddling in the affairs of another.
President George W. Bush didn’t think so. He invited Maria Corina Machado, SUMATE’s leader and principal spokesperson to the Oval Office for photographs together. Condoleezza Rice met with her also. These were honors that not even the Venezuelan ambassador to the U.S. had been granted. Not bad for a woman who was being accused of treason within her own country.
Now we come to April 2006. As of the present moment, four men have announced that they plan to be candidates in the December elections. However, the consensus is that if there is more than one candidate, there will be no possibility of beating President Chávez. The question is: how to decide who the one candidate will be?
No problem. Venezuela has the answer: SUMATE! After screaming daily since 2002 about the composition and work of the National Electoral Commission, SUMATE has announced that primary elections are the answer to the question and SUMATE has self-appointed itself as being in charge of the process.
If any contemporary dictionary were looking for current descriptions of the words “hypocrisy” or “ridiculous,” SUMATE would be perfect for the task.
SUMATE seems to be following the example of another Venezuelan sideshow, Queremos Eligir (We want to elect). After repeated elections in Venezuela, its leader, Elias Santana, still shouts, “We want to elect.” But who ever elected Elias? And who elected Maria Corina and her SUMATE team to rule the elector process?
One of the candidates, senior citizen Teodoro Petkoff, refuses to say that primaries are the only was to decide the single candidate to oppose Chávez. I don’t blame him. SUMATE appears to be a clone of the Primera Justicia party, which boasts it only has young and beautiful people in its ranks. It also has a higher percentage of members who speak perfect English than would be true of Teodoro’s friends. Teodoro, I wouldn’t trust SUMATE if I were you.
One thing about SUMATE that seems to be clear at this moment is that they do not lack money. Monday they sponsored a half page ad in El Universal proclaiming that, “The woman is the greatest miracle of nature.” I’ll go along with that. I just wonder where they got the 9,780,000 bolivares (about $4,550.00) to pay for the ad.
Yes, SUMATE is a fascinating and also strange organization supposedly supporting democracy through elections. But during the December 2005 elections for the Venezuelan congress, SUMATE asked those opposed to the Chávez government to not participate in the elections. Instead they were urged to go to church that Sunday morning. Now they are asking those supporting the government to not vote in SUMATE’s primaries and are searching for ways to assure that they can’t. Their next action will probably be to recommend that these citizens go to church that day instead of voting. Not a bad idea. SUMATE could use all the prayers it can get. More than the blessing of George W. Bush’s smile and money, SUMATE needs a true miracle to make it a credible organization.
Other essays by Charles Hardy can be found on his personal blog Cowboyincaracas.com . You may write him at cowboyincaracas@yahoo.com.
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SUMATE Drops out of Presidential Race
Submitted on June 28th, 2006 by Charlie HardyAfter I wrote my recent comments about Sumate, I received a scathing letter from one of its members accusing me of “vicious lies” about them. I responded, inviting the person to write a rebuttal and said I would be willing to publish it. I received a positive answer, but never heard from them again. No problem. A watchdog can’t bark at everyone on the street. Dealing with the triumvirate who wouldn’t support Sumate unequivocally was certainly more important than my measly editorial.
In any case the question of primaries in Venezuela to decide who will be the presidential candidate has fizzled. Sumate says there is not enough time to carry them out.
At the present moment there are three candidates who feel they have the best possibility of confronting Chávez. Julio Borges is founder of the Primera Justicia (Justice First) party. Before becoming a political party, Primera Justicia also received money from the National Endowment for Democracy. Teodoro Petkoff is a onetime guerilla, editor of a newspaper and former planning minister in the government of Christian Democrat Rafael Caldera. He has never been enthusiastic about relying on Sumate. Manuel Rosales is governor of the oil-rich state of Zulia and was a supporter of the short-lived Carmona administration.
My guess is that one of the reasons these candidates backed away from Sumate is that it is seen as being too closely aligned with the U.S. government. In the long run, I predict that the photo of Sumate’s Maria Corina Machado with President Bush in the Oval Office and her meeting in Florida with Condoleezza Rice will end up being something of kisses of death for the organization. These actions were not only bad decisions on the part of Sumate, but also show the ineptness of the current administration’s approach to Latin America.
Although technically, Sumate was never a candidate for the presidency, it did want to be not only a watchdog but also manager of the anti-Chávez team. Now that it is temporarily back in the doghouse, we will have to wait to see when it comes out again and whether its voice will be a bark or simply a whimper in the forthcoming elections.
According to Ultimas Noticias, Sumate said that they were capable of setting up 3,400 voting centers in the country with four or five voting tables in each center. They were counting on more than 50,000 volunteers to do the work. That would have been impressive. But in spite of all the volunteers, such a process would have cost lots of money. Two additional questions remain in my mind: 1) Where was that money going to come from? And, 2) what is it going to be used for now?
Finally, for those who might be wondering what the “vicious lies” were that Sumate found in my article, here they are with my response.
One, that SUMATE did not receive $54,400 from the National Endowment for Democracy but only $31,000. According to the NED Grant Agreement No. 2003-548.0, NED did approve $54,400 to be used in the period of September 12, 2003 to September 30, 2004. I think the wording in my editorial was correct, even if Sumate eventually used a lesser amount. Even worse, Narco News’s Jeremy Bigwood discovered that they received much more than that from USAID.
Two, that, “At no point did SUMATE ever support or refer to abstention as an option during the Parliamentary elections of 2005.” I will accept the statement as true that Sumate never “referred” to abstention. However, there was never any moment when Sumate encouraged those opposed to the Chávez government to vote or to participate as candidates. Being an organization encouraging citizen participation, such an attitude does seem to me to indicate “support” for not voting. My only recollection is that SUMATE urged people to go to church that Sunday—certainly a new twist in encouraging citizen participation in the political arena.
Three, that “we have never nor will ever ask that Chavistas abstain from voting in the Primary elections, SHOULD these ever happen.” Nevertheless, on page 1-4 of El Universal (24 April 2005), María Corina Machado was quoted as saying, “I trust in the democratic nature of those citizens who prefer the president (Chavez). I am convinced they will respect the idea that another sector of the population can carry through with this inclusive, democratic and transparent process.”
Then in the 26 April 2006 edition of Ultimas Noticias on page 19, Ricardo Estévez, a spokesperson for SUMATE, spoke of SUMATE proposing the idea that those over 25 years of age who received their Venezuelan identity card for the first time through the Mission Identity should not be allowed to vote in the opposition primaries. The only reason that can be deduced for such an action would be to exclude these people who would presumably be “Chavistas.” It was nice of the person who wrote me to say that SUMATE will never ask that “Chavistas abstain,” but these remarks by SUMATE leaders did not seem to be in line with that statement.
To sum up my thoughts on Sumate: does any one know of a very good veterinarian that treats “non-governmental watchdogs?”
Venezuela's Own Superman
Submitted on July 9th, 2006 by Charlie HardyWhile Superman makes his appearance in movie theatres throughout the world, Venezuela’s own comic version, Super-SUMATE, is flying through the political air here once again.
After saying that it would not conduct primary elections unless all the candidates agreed to participate, Venezuela’s self-appointed electoral watchdog has decided to oversee them. But not all the candidates have agreed to participate.
Teodoro Petkoff, possibly the most popular candidate, says that he is not in agreement with the “authoritarian procedures” this organization wants to impose upon the political parties and questions what right SUMATE has to “dictate” to them.
Those are powerful words. I didn’t use them in the editorial I wrote a few months ago about SUMATE but the ideas were there. Is it possible that Mister Petkoff read the editorial?
In any case, it now looks as though there will be primaries among some of the opposition candidates. And when the primaries are over, what will they have proven? Nothing. At the end two questions will remain: who voted in them and who counted the ballots? And, when SUMATE finally issues its report, who will believe it?
Teodoro, congratulations on your honesty this time.