Mayoral elections are to be held in Venezuela on December 8. Every mayoralty will be contested and, as is the case in Venezuela's vibrant democracy, both the right-wing coalition and Chavista candidates are busily campaigning up and down the country.
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Key bodies of the US foreign policy apparatus are very actively intervening in the internal affairs of the country by channelling millions of dollars of taxpayers' money into opposition political, social and media coffers.
President Maduro has denounced the destabilisation efforts saying that the Venezuelan right is not campaigning for elections but is instead focused on "insurrection."
Former vice-president Jose Vicente Rangel - now a well respected journalist - warned of "a terrorist agenda of the opposition seeking to selectively assassinate Chavista leaders, ministers and high military officers, as well as terrorist attacks against the metro (underground), cable cars, state oil company installations, water supplies, supermarkets and electric installations."
Maduro has explained that extremists in the opposition are seeking a "total collapse," exploiting difficulties in the Venezuelan economy to create chaos or, at the very least, to give the strong impression of it among anxious sections of society. It hopes to provoke a "social explosion" that could see the government ousted.
In that context, one major concern is the recent statement by 45 Venezuelan retired military officers - including a dozen generals and admirals and a former defence minister - supporting a military intervention to replace the Maduro government which they claimed "would not be a coup d'état" but "defending sovereignty."
The opposition is characterising the mayoral elections as a plebiscite against the Maduro government. They are seeking to popularise the idea that a setback for Maduro must lead to a new government.
This is a baseless line of argument as the pro-Chavista forces have a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, 20 out of 23 state governors and 22 of 23 local state assemblies as well as just having just won a six-year presidential term for Maduro.
Furthermore, recent polls indicate that the government coalition will win a majority of the mayors.
In coming weeks calls from anti-democratic sections of the opposition for an end to the Maduro government are likely to get ever more shrill and should they, and their external sponsors, be able to carry out their plans successfully it would lead to a severe setback to democracy and social progress in Venezuela.
