Adbert Alzolay is on Twitter, Pleading for the Life of His Country. It's Your Job to Listen.

[Matthew Trueblood]

What do we owe to each other? Sometimes, we're helpless to change the big, bad things of the world, but when we take as much from a place as baseball fans have taken from Venezuela, part of what we owe in return is our attention and our effort.

Image courtesy of © David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

There is an unfortunate tendency, in the United States, to think about much of the rest of the world as less cultured or civilized. That assumption is racist and xenophobic, and it's also objectively wrong. To wit: don't assume, merely because nothing material is being done about it, that there's massive ambiguity or confusion about what happened in Venezuela's recent national elections. On Jul. 28, millions of voters went to the polls in that nation, and its robust computerized voting tabulation system yielded reasonably clear results. President Nicolas Maduro lost, according to the best data that has made it out into the international public sphere, by a wide margin. Opposition challenger Edmundo González Urrutia won, and should be president right now.

Instead, Gonzalez and his party are under a new investigation, instigated by Maduro's top prosecutor. The government has upended the will of the Venezuelan people and declared Maduro the winner, wielding fake or manipulated election results as a cudgel. Mass protests are underway, but the government is powerful and ruthless, and the international community (whether stretched too thin by the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, or unwilling to engage in any infringement on national sovereignty, even in what seems like an egregious breach of that privilege) has not mustered any meaningful intervention.

At what must be the most difficult moment of his young life, Cubs reliever Adbert Alzolay is speaking up. In a series of tweets over the last several days, he's drawing attention back to this issue over and over, even as he braces for career-threatening Tommy John surgery. 

Please notice that the above is in English. Alzolay tweeted and retweeted multiple things about the election and the ensuing unrest in the days before that post, but on Monday, he turned his message toward his English-speaking followers. Nor was it only that one post.

We know, of course, that athletes are not politicians, and that many of them carry deeply confused or flawed political opinions. Like the rest of us, they are prone to statements that might be too strong, or self-interested. What Alzolay is trying to tell his (predominantly) American followers, though, is worth hearing and passing on, not as an endorsement of González or of any particular political ideology, but because it boils down to a simple truth: wrong was done here. This isn't right, and attention needs to be paid. The wrong won't be righted unless and until the world tunes in.

The Carter Center issued a strong statement about the elections, back on Jul. 30. Do not, under any circumstances, take Alzolay's word for what happened, but do know that the international diplomatic and human rights advocacy community backs him up on it.

We can not change the outcome of the Venezuelan elections. Paradoxically, though, it is our duty as baseball fans to try. It is our duty, as fans of Alzolay and Willson Contreras, of Luis Arráez and Ronald Acuña Jr., of Johan Santana and Dave Concepcion, to repay what we have gotten from Venezuela, by caring about the people who still live there (or who are fleeing, sometimes for their lives) in the same way we have chosen to care about the few who have come into our lives through this channel of entertainment. Call or email your Congressional representative. Talk to others about this developing crisis. And keep listening, to Alzolay and others who speak up about it.

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[Tank]

Yes, please listen. I have friends in Venezuela and what they are going through is horrific. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

17 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

The last thing Venezuela needs is Americans

This applies to most of the world, frankly. We can do some great work by stopping nations in wars of aggression but when it comes to state-building, our track record is not awesome.

[Sammy Sofa]

21 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

You know what would help (edit: very likely “fix”) Venezuela? America not sanctioning the crap out of them, decimating their economy, manufacturing poverty and conflict, and all because we want their oil

Edit: The vibe I’m getting is US and western media are utilizing this election in the same way they used 10/7: leverage civilian ignorance to reset the history, reset the narrative, and pin problems we created on the people and leaders of whatever state is in our crosshairs. Maybe I’m wrong but my impression is the opposition is just (another) attempt by the US to put in a puppet that will gladly turn over Venezuela’s oil. We’ve done nothing but rape, pillage, murder, lie, and seek to dominate in Latin America for centuries, propagandized against them, and specifically gone harder and harder after Venezuela since Chavez refused to give us their oil. 

Shoulda stopped before the edit yet again.

[Sammy Sofa]

Maduro ain't it, homey.

[Sammy Sofa]

8 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Not only not the point

You're basically doing the same thing as all of your Ukraine rants; you're willfully ignoring the super obvious rampaging elephant in the room and it completely undercuts any good point you have to make.

[Sammy Sofa]

5 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

I reeeeeeeallllly need to be convinced we are not the problem, the source.

Nobody's saying the US isn't a huge problem.

The answer to Ukraine isn't to just let Russia do what it wants, and the answer to Venezuela isn't to let Maduro to get away with what he wants. Swapping one bad actor for another isn't the solution you seemingly think it is.

[Sammy Sofa]

8 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

it’s legitimate for Russia to not want Ukraine in the international terrorist org that is NATO

It really isn't.

Maduro is a completely and hopelessly corrupt petro-gangster.

Having "nothing could ever possibly be worse than the US/West/NATO/Global North doing ANYTHING" as your go-to is a completely self-defeating argument.

And I'm not endorsing the US doing anything about Maduro; I'm just saying that wanting Maduro out because he is insanely corrupt and bad is pretty much objectively correct.

 

Edited August 8, 2024 by Sammy Sofa

[Sammy Sofa]

Bottom line, you argument for Maduro staying in power is little more than "it's good because the US doesn't like it!"

[Sammy Sofa]

2 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

t

How does it work out that he’s bad bc the US doesn’t like him? Did he sanction their economy into an engineered depression? No, that was and is the US. Edit: AfaIct the system is *designed* to funnel the blame on the government we want to topple, seems pretty standard

It "works out" that way because literally your only argument against the Venezuelan people wanting him out is that it could only possibly be because any opposition to him must be orchestrated by the US.

Nevermind he's literally horsefeathers disappearing people for speaking out against him and challenging his theft of the election:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/08/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-contested-election-protests-detention

[Sammy Sofa]

3 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

I’m not going to die on a Maduro hill, all states are trash and the problem, but also this is standard in the playbook too. Since they can’t use the military to perform the coup like normal…JMO the facts we can count on are: America is outspoken about getting their oil, America engineered their economic collapse, and America has made several attempts at a coup. They have zero credibility, every accusation is much closer to projecting/an admission, just as it is with Israel 

Edit: Ftr I will admit that like…this is subject to change but its hard to take the word of the people who have done nothing but take from that entire continent for centuries when they so openly have an agenda

Wait, why are you talking like only the US is calling him out for this? Multiple countries in Central and South America are condemning him, too.

If you're going to just quintuple down and say that those countries are also too irreparably damage to ever hold foreign policy opinions that aren't warped by US interests, or are straight up in the US' pocket...well, just don't bother. You've gone full conspiracy theorist on this, where all evidence is somehow invalid, and all absence of evidence is somehow proof.

Maduro is a ridiculously corrupt dictator who is trying to steal the election and is crushing people underfoot to do so, period. There is nothing the US has done or is doing that justifies any of his actions, or any kind of support for him.

[Sammy Sofa]

You're twirling off into Tankie territory (with a heaping helping of infantalizing the people you claim to be speaking on behalf of. It's the Tankie version of "those primitive brown people couldn't have possibly created those pyramids; it must have been ALIENS!!!")

Edited August 9, 2024 by Sammy Sofa

[Sammy Sofa]

It means you're willing to support totalitarians so long as you deem them sufficiently anti-US/anti-West.

You're also basically saying it's impossible for Venezuelans (or other Central/South American peoples) to legitimately oppose Maduro.

"Sorry Venezuelans, you just have to put up with a corrupt dictator vanishing his political opposition off of the streets because he also makes the US Big Mad!"

[Sammy Sofa]

9 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Yeeeeeeah, US backed parties who call for the privatization of the nation's resources and sanctions if they can't have power are not that

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, you're going to dismiss any opposition that isn't vocally anti-US as Maduro is.

By the inane standards you've set a literal horsefeathers dictator is the preferable option so long as he's "not backed by the US."

You straight up don't believe that a majority of the Venezuelan population would not support him or vote against him solely because you want the anti-US guy to stay in power and that's it. You flat out don't give a horsefeathers about what he's actually doing because the only thing that matters to you is he's anti-US.

You chastise everyone else for falling for propaganda while you're carrying water for a goddamn dictator arresting his own people for daring to commit the "crime" of speaking out against him.

Edited August 9, 2024 by Sammy Sofa

[Sammy Sofa]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/venezuela-election-maduro-analysis

You're a horsefeathers Tankie.

[Sammy Sofa]

4 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Just the ones calling for sanctions on their own people, conspiring with governments who explicitly want the nation's resources on coups, etc

Typical Tankie horsefeathers. Can't graduate the brain cells above anything better than "the US just wants to take their oil, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!"

Meanwhile complete ignores the far more active influence of China, Iran, Russia and Cuba in South America, ESPECIALLY in Venezuela under Maduro. But nope, it's only because the US wants to take baths in the delicious, yummy oil, num-num-nummers.

Grow the horsefeathers up and stop supporting dictators you horsefeathers child.

Edited August 9, 2024 by Sammy Sofa

[Sammy Sofa]

Just now, TomtheBombadil said:

I still have no idea what a tankie is because you don't explain anything man. I also don't get why your sources are gospel but mine can be ignored and dismissed as "anti-US"

Quote

It means you're willing to support totalitarians so long as you deem them sufficiently anti-US/anti-West.

Learn to read, you goddamn trash bag.

Most of your sources on this are little more than Tankie blogs that prop up dictators so long as they think it makes the US look bad.

Multiple countries and organizations observing and vetting these elections, including ones that MADURO horsefeathers INVITED IN, have piles of evidence that he lost. Your only argument is little more than variations of, "NO WAY, THE US MUST HAVE FAKED IT!"

[Sammy Sofa]

It's a bad thing to prop up a dictator that preys on their own populace!

It's bad when anyone does that!

This isn't a complicated concept!

There is not legitimate justification for what Maduro is doing now, and there was no justification when he did it five years ago.

There might be a reason why his biggest regional allies (Mexico, Colombia and Brazil) are finally turning on him, and it's because his dictatorial corruption is beyond the pale.

No amount of sweaty Maduro-spewed anti-US rhetoric that gives you a quivering little boner comes even remotely close to justifying what he's trying to get away with. Solely blaming the sanctions for millions of Venezuelans fleeing the country or being plunged into famine is insultingly simplistic; HE'S TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION TO MAKE EVERYTHING INFINITELY WORSE.

He's a horsefeathers criminal that Venezuelans, and their regional neighbors, want out of office. Right now they're giving him the diplomatic path out; if he keeps this up he's probably going to end up choosing an Italian-style exit instead.

Edited August 9, 2024 by Sammy Sofa

[Sammy Sofa]

As always, the wild Tankie thinks it's impossible for the non-whites to have any kind of autonomy.

Same as it ever was.

[Sammy Sofa]

Dictator killing and torturing his own people? Well, he flipped off the US, so that's OK!

Pointing out that dictators tend to meet ugly ends when the people they subjugate have had enough? "YOU BLOODTHIRSTY MONSTER!!!!"

[Sammy Sofa]

Really can't see your way around that big "dictator brutalizing his own people"-sized blind spot, can you?

[Sammy Sofa]

Focus, Tom.

Give us one reason you think Maduro should stay in power that isn't "it sticks it to the US."

Just one. 

[Sammy Sofa]

And are you seriously saying that the reports of what Maduro is doing are all American lies?

Edited August 9, 2024 by Sammy Sofa

[Sammy Sofa]

5 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Venezuela deserves better than Maduro, the opposition wouldn’t be it (even if, temporarily, it would seem so)

This is an absurd thing to so, like Venezuelans just need to put up with a bit of heartburn after eating a bad meal or something.

Maduro horsefeathers mocks his own people for starving. Like, this isn't something that was reported secondhand; he horsefeathers does it on his own social media outlets. This is not a guy you gotta hand it to in any way, shape or form.

His regime stole this election (like they did in 2019), and they did it cartoonishly bad. Here's some good on the ground summaries:

Spoiler

1. The primary candidate for the opposition was not allowed to run. Why? Well, why not. After all, the "CNE", the body that manages elections in Venezuela is pro Maduro. Then, that same candidate (Machado) decided to name someone else who would "run" in her name. She also wasn't allowed to register. Finally, the opposition rallied behind someone who was already registered and therefore the CNE couldn't do anything about it.

2. The CNE didn't really communicate when new voters could register. Then, they only had like a 2-weeks window to do that. Abroad, Venezuelans were imposed random arbitrary requirements (not in our constitution

3. Venezuelans can randomly be selected to be volunteers on election day. They oversee their voting stations and make sure everything runs according to plan. Most Venezuelans in these roles had to fight against police, army or government supporters on the day. Many, not being allowed to enter their voting stations at the right time or other obstacles.

4. On election day, we vote digitally, through some "machines" that are supposed to be the best of the best. The machine prints a little paper that then, we put into a closed box. Anyway, at the end of the day, the machines print an act that has details of how many votes each candidate got. The volunteers then cross reference the "final act" of the machine with some of the boxes with the receipts. There shouldn't be any difference between the acts and the number of ballots in the boxes. Simultaneously, the machines sent the final acts to the CNE because of the magic of the Internet. However, the machines stopped sending information to the CNE from 6 to 8pm because apparently North Macedonia and now Elon Musk are behind a cyber attack (?)

Volunteers on this day took photos/scanned the final acts as proof, because we knew the government would fake the results. These were collected and sent to the opposition.

The opposition created a website with all the acts and we can all put our ID number and check the results of the voting stations. Something the CNE has said for decades it was IMPOSSIBLE.

Voting stations were then closed earlier (even if there were queues still) and the whole disaster of police/army started, many of them destroying evidence, from the acts to the ballots.

5) When the CNE announced the results, no one could really believe it because. .well, this time most volunteers at the voting stations were supporters of Machado, they had proofs and they were day all day looking at the process. Many took videos at the end of the day and announced the results of their voting stations for everyone to know. So, at this point, the information from the CNE didn't match with the information of ..anyone.

6) The same volunteers are now being chased. Kidnapped and many have disappeared. From young people to old women, all taken to what we know is the "hole". A lovely jail where they take people to torture in Caracas.

7) The CNE has not published the acts. Why? Who knows. Because they have all this information. They have only said Maduro won and that's it. No proof. They had 48 hours to do this and now there's rumours they are trying to fake them.

Here are some non-US breakdowns of how Maduro's government are trying to steal this (use the translator of your choice so you can't claim anything funny is afoot):

https://www.elespectador.com/mundo/elecciones-venezuela-2024/por-que-ver-estos-decimales-nos-ayudaria-a-hablar-de-un-fraude-en-venezuela/

https://www.infobae.com/venezuela/2024/07/30/el-burdo-calculo-matematico-en-la-informacion-oficial-que-aumenta-las-sospechas-sobre-la-manipulacion-de-la-eleccion-en-venezuela/

Here's a statement from the horsefeathers VENEZUELAN COMMUNIST COALITION telling Maduro to cut the horsefeathers and release the voting info to back up his claims:

https://prensapcv.wordpress.com/2024/07/29/comunicado-sobre-las-elecciones-presidenciales/

Maduro is trying to hide his latest crime via mass arrests and worse. HE IS CLEARLY AND OBVIOUSLY NOT THE BETTER OPTION.

[Tank]

23 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Most I’m saying America influences every single political action on the planet either directly or indirectly, and most of that influence is in the direction of violence of all varieties, fake business, oppressive economics…Venezuela deserves better than Maduro, the opposition wouldn’t be it (even if, temporarily, it would seem so), and everyone on the planet would be best served if states and money were returned to and forever stuck in some European’s imagination 

You're being obtuse here.