The Deputy of the National Assembly of Venezuela and Chief of the Venezuela Nuestra Campaign Command, Jorge Rodriguez, gives statements before the media after attending to polling station with his family in order to exercise his vote during election drill. teleSUR
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00:00We go live to Venezuela.
00:06The President of the National Assembly of the Venezuela Nuestra campaign, Jorge Rodriguez,
00:09is attending a polling station during this electoral drill to exercise his vote.
00:21Presenting live images from a polling center in Caracas as the President of the National
00:26Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez is arriving with his family to exercise his vote in this electoral
00:31drill that is being carried out this Sunday all over the nation ahead of the July 28th
00:38presidential elections to be held in Venezuela.
00:41This is an electoral drill that is being celebrated nationwide to test all the systems and also
00:48for citizens, for Venezuelans to familiarize themselves with the whole structure, with
00:53the system, the U-shaped system, as they call it, when they pass through the machine
00:59to verify their digital print and carry on with their voting in another machine that
01:05also prints out a ticket of the vote that they did and they later put it in the ballot
01:09box and then they go to another table where they reaffirm the voting system, the person
01:16that voted.
01:17Let's listen to the statements of Jorge Rodriguez.
01:20To all the people of Venezuela, to our heroic and brave women of good that build up with
01:32their hands the homeland every day, to our working men, decent and good, that have resisted
01:46and stand up for the worst aggressions and that today are just exercising their votes,
01:55fighting for the prosperity that, among all, we will build.
02:02Actually, I am really overwhelmed, excited, and actually the people of Venezuela is always
02:14teaching us lessons of peace, moral ethics, because I feel that it is an electoral drill
02:24today for the National Electoral Council proves the deployment and the technical elements
02:33of the best electoral system that the people have made this drill a real festivity for
02:42democracy.
02:43These are the preparations for the upcoming elections on July 28th.
02:51There are long queues outside in every polling station of the country, in the 3,000 polling
03:05stations.
03:06According to the reports so far, there is a massive presence of the Venezuelan people
03:14because people don't want to be out of this historic drill.
03:24Despite the extreme minorities that would rather participate in other, well, it is always
03:39prevails the democracy of Venezuela.
03:43It seems like a real election, the long queues, being here in the parish of Valles in which
03:51I always participate, in Pedro Emilio Coll and Jose Abel, there are long queues here
03:58right away in the unity of Padre Mendoza too, and if something characterizes the Venezuelan
04:07democracy, it is the intense activity in which there has been a renewal of activities.
04:18It is a solid, steadfast democracy which has never been undermined on the violence
04:25calls.
04:26There are 30 elections in the Bolivarian revolution, but let's just assess from 2018 to 2024.
04:37In 2018, presidential elections that elected President Maduro as president, at the end
04:50of 2018, in 2019, there have been held elections for mayors nationwide.
05:02In 2020, there were legislative elections in which we just get rid of those thieves,
05:17those who plundered our territory in the parliamentary elections of 2022.
05:25In three years, we have been going through three elections.
05:32In 2021, we summoned another elections to elect mayors, councils, four years, four elections.
05:45In 2022, there wasn't an official election, but the communes and communities chose the
05:56most important projects being held in their communities.
06:01In 2022, there were the fifth elections, and in 2023, the consultative referendum in which
06:12the people massively ratified their support for the recovery of the Esequibo.
06:23And in 2023, elections of the consultative referendum for the Esequibo.
06:35In 2024, we have just the presidential elections.
06:41So, do you remember that they said we were looking for an excuse for not going through
06:51elections, and President Maduro just said he is a guarantor of constitution.
06:59So, he said, be certain that in 2024, there will be presidential elections by going to
07:11the polls, because that's the only way that Venezuela has to just elect the political
07:22affairs of the country.
07:24So, we are very satisfied with the people's response, because they have shown a lot of
07:31strength, and there's a massive presence.
07:34Right now, it is just 2 p.m. in the afternoon, and the people are in the polling stations.
07:46I congratulate the army, the National Electoral Council, and let's continue with our preparations
07:55for the elections on July 28th.
07:58Let's answer some questions.
08:00Hello, Liz.
08:02Good afternoon.
08:03The polls that have been held lately have stood out participations of more than 60%.
08:14In the light of this drill, how do you assess the participation of the citizens in the presidential
08:23elections?
08:24On the other side, we have toured several polling stations.
08:33We have seen high participation, mostly of the elderly, in the process that has been
08:40held today.
08:43What's the motivation of such participation for the elderly, and how do you assess the
08:51behavior of machinery, of technology, on this electoral drill?
08:58Well, look, we have had very promising results on the technological electoral system.
09:10In this new process of renewing electoral machinery of the Bolivarian forces that accompany
09:19our candidate, President Nicolás Maduro, we appealed the real machinery, and we are
09:29just proving the force that this machinery has deployed, has triggered.
09:36This machinery requires searches for the whole people's participation, and so we are
09:48referring to the machinery of the communes and communities for all these defensors of
09:59the homeland sovereignty, social movements, the youth, women, our grandfathers and our
10:08grandmothers, who today have been attending the elderly.
10:18And there is a huge participation of the elderly to get familiar with the electoral
10:28system.
10:29We know this is not the election, but there is a feature of the Venezuelan drills.
10:35The electoral outcomes, we know for sure how many people are voting in real time in our
10:47computing centers, and we have some projections, but we want to highlight that traditionally
10:55in Venezuela, the outcomes of drills are just very similar to the final elections.
11:03It's always been like that.
11:05And Venezuela goes through Venezuelan electoral drills ever since the Bolivarian revolution,
11:14and we think there is a lot of trust in the elections of the peoples, and I think that
11:23it's cutting-edge technology, and this machinery promotes the unity of the people.
11:33Thank you very much.
11:34And, Nelson Delgado, how are you doing?
11:38I have three questions.
11:40The candidate, Mundo Gonzalez, decides not to participate in this electoral drill.
11:46However, he is in the Bolivar state next to the meeting with workers, and he won't call
11:59the citizens to participate in this drill, but Matos attends this drill and urges the
12:09people to participate in the drill.
12:11What do you make of it?
12:15Well, you have to ask yourself this to the opponent's candidates.
12:25I read that you pointed out.
12:30It seems that this candidate's plans are different to peace, to the proof that Venezuela is
12:41giving to the world how democracy is very strong in Venezuela.
12:51Some opponent's candidates are just showing that