By Earl Bousquet

President Maduro, like his extremely-popular predecessor Hugo Chavez, continues to outwit the local opposition and its Washington backers, employing proactive and responsive local measures to ensure continuity of governance and contain calculated chaos, after his third successive victory at the polls.

The main opposition losers, however, have already started bungling at home. But, like with the last election loser embraced by then-President Donald Trump, Juan Guaido, President Joe Biden is also making it crystal-clear that he’s also leaving doors wide-open for negotiations for an eventual return of American involvement in Venezuela’s lucrative and infinite energy sector.

Guaido disappointed his Western sponsors, including the 51 nations that supported Trump’s choice president for Venezuela, even while Maduro was still serving-out his continuing constitutional term.

At President Maduro’s request, Venezuela’s Supreme Court earlier this week subpoenaed all the July 28 election candidates to make appearances at a scheduled judicial review of the results.

But opposition leader, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, chose to not only ignore the judges’ warrant, but also to challenge his homeland’s highest court, rejecting participation in a judicial review of the elections he claims he won.

President Maduro and other candidates attended their respective hearings, but Gonzalez’ designated seat remained empty on Wednesday, when he was scheduled to appear.

Gonzalez and María Corina Machado -the lady he replaced as candidate but who’s long been pulling his political levers- remain entirely dependent on Washington and hostile international media outlets to present them as who they aren’t.

Now, they seem to have opted for a ‘Russian Roulette’ approach to fighting their hard-to-win case at home, where all the violence and sabotage reported by the international media followed their firm July 29 public rejection of the official election results and invitation of supporters to protest.

Gonzalez and Machado -and their legal advisors- know they’re treading on dangerous legal grounds.

So, why have they together given the nation’s highest judicial court the middle finger?

This will most-likely put Gonzalez in trouble with the law, so what’ll happen if and when the court takes its next logical step?

In the USA, Trump confidante Steve Bannon learned the hard way that not-even in the fabled Wild West can anyone get-away with poking a judge in the eyes by rejecting a high court summons.

But this case is clearly not-as-much about respecting Venezuelan law, as it’s about disrespecting its constitution -and fanning dangerous political fires.

Everything rolling-out in this latest venture to reject the official election results of another Venezuela election -just because it didn’t yield the results hoped, prayed and planned for, is very-indicative of much-alike situations involving Israel and Ukraine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky do already have lots in common: both have outlived their elected parliamentary terms and each has sound reasons to fear jail terms; both wish their wars against Russia and Palestine will continue forever; and elections is the last thing on their minds.

Israel and Ukraine are taking reckless and desperate actions to force their US, UK and NATO backers to deliver more weapons, lift safety clauses governing use of long-range weapons supplied and to directly join their wars.

In Israel’s case, Venezuela’s current resident opposition kingmaker, Corina Machado, is on record as a top supporter of Netanyahu. In 2018, she was reported as having sought Netanyahu’s help to overthrow Maduro -and promised to relocate Venezuela’s embassy in Israel to Occupied Jerusalem.

In 2019, she thanked Israel for recognizing Guaido -and in 2020 she signed a “cooperation agreement” with Netanyahu’s political party on “policies, ideological and social issues” and “strategic geopolitical and security matters.”

Then, on November 5, 2021, in a Facebook post, Corina Machado expressed unbridled support for Netanyahu and Israel, saying: “Today, all who defend Western values must also support Israel, a genuine ally for freedom.”

A Gonzalez administration, with Corina calling the shots, will most-likely have moved to implement her promises earlier than later, especially in the current scenario of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine, when Netanyahu needs urgent international support.

In contrast, President Maduro was one of the first Latin American leaders to condemn Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack -and despite hundreds of crippling economic and commercial US-led sanctions, Caracas dispatched tons of food, medical supplies, drinking water and pumps, oil, mattresses and other needs to Gaza.

And after casting his vote on July 28, 2024, President Maduro’s first words in public were: ‘Long Live Palestine!’

Gonzalez earlier this month publicly called -like Guaido- for the Venezuelan police and army to abandon Maduro, but the armed forces responded with an overwhelming public expression of confidence and loyalty in their President and Commander-in-Chief.

The Venezuelan security forces, which arrested a group of paid political saboteurs ordered to disrupt electricity in eight states days ahead of the July 28 poll, have also rounded-up over-2,000 right-wing thugs behind scenes of chaos multiplied online by a clear demonstration of the equivalence of international press gangsterism, like never seen anywhere before.

Maduro and the PSUV have been mobilizing youth and senior citizens, volunteers, producers and voters who supported them for the 29th time out of 31 presidential, legislative and municipal elections in 25 years.

Meanwhile, more countries and governments are joining Caribbean and Latin American, African and Asian, Indo-Pacific, European, Oceanic and other nations -the latest being Laos, Uzbekistan and Turkiye- joining China, India, Iran, Russia, South Africa and scores of other developing nations. In addition, over-300 intellectuals, politicians, activists, journalists and leaders earlier this week together loudly condemned what they described, in a public statement, as “fascist violence against Venezuela”.