I know I’ve expressed dislike for the guy in the past, but seriously? I thought for even something like this, he would at least have a good take on it.
Long story short, there is no solid dick. Nobody knows what is going on in the Venezuelan elections outside of maybe the judicial branch, and even they are taking their time on confirmation.
That being said, it doesn't matter if you think there is fraud or not, we are literally talking about media coming from a country (the U.S.) that tried to do a coup less than 5 years ago and then maintained a government in exile. Observably and historically! As such you cannot take anything the mainstream media, or any of their downstream puppets who get most of their information from those sources, seriously.
Not that it matters. Our opinions in the U.S. have no actual bearing on the matter, in fact, they are equal to your buddy who is Venezuelan, because if intervention is called for, correctly or incorrectly, it's not their ass that will be in the meat grinder. Even if they have family there, their actual means of production stakes are essentially the same as yours.