After years of political and economic upheaval in the South American country since 2015, over 8 million registered voters took to the polls to establish a new constituent assembly on July 30, 2017. In 2015, opposition legislators took control of the national parliament and since then, the Nicolas Maduro administration has been under attack from international media as well as opposition supporters.

According to Miguel Castillo, Charge d’Affaires, Embassy of Venezuela, the turnout at the polls was  41.5% of registered voters but that did not deter the voting from being called “illegitimate” and “unconstitutional”.

The Venezuelan embassy in Belize called a press conference on Tuesday, August 1, where Castillo informed persons outside of Venezuela of the results of the elections since the ‘propaganda’ from international media houses have time and time again painted a wrong picture of the situation in Venezuela. Since April 4, 2017, there have been numerous demonstrations which continued until President Maduro asked the people to go to the polls to find a peaceful solution to their present problems.

A total of 545 representatives were elected, 364 territorial, 173 sectoral, and 8 indigenous. While only direct Venezuelan residents had the option to vote, persons from very diverse groups participated in the elections. Senior citizens, disabled persons, and even persons that received threats exercised their right to vote.

Despite the large turnout, international media refuse to acknowledge the ‘vote for peace’. Instead, they wrongly magnified protests and criminal activities. They continue to highlight the violence occurring in the country and deny that there were a lot of voters.