Nicolas Maduro’s claim of victory in Venezuela’s presidential election has plunged the South American country into a dangerous conflict. A thwarted opposition accuses him of rigging the election to stay in power, and many leaders in the region and beyond question the veracity and transparency of the vote.
Street protests were reported across the capital and across the country, including in the state, late on Monday. Falcon with protesters photographed Destroy the statue Hugo Chavez, and In Portuguesa, the group shown in the video Destruction of advertising billboards It features a photo of President Maduro and a slogan promising “more change and transformation.”
Riot police clashed with protesters and fired tear gas in various places.
The results of the election, described by independent observers as the most arbitrary in recent history, even by the standards of the dictatorship established by Mr. Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chavez, appeared to dash opposition hopes of an end to a quarter-century of insurgency. Chavista Governance and economic turmoil.
After the announcement of the election results was delayed by six hours, sparking international concern, the government-controlled electoral authority claimed that Maduro had won with 51.21% of the vote, compared with his rival, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, with 44.2%.
The council said that with about 80% of the votes counted, Maduro had won more than 5 million votes to Gonzalez’s 4.4 million. Authorities delayed announcing the results from Venezuela’s 30,000 polling stations, saying only that they would be released “in the coming hours.”
On Monday morning, electoral officials officially confirmed Maduro’s victory. “I am the president of the country, mandated by the people to lead it towards peace and prosperity,” Maduro told allies, adding that the results were “irreversible.”
Critics accuse the 61-year-old Maduro of leading Venezuela into a devastating economic and social crisis and turning it into an increasingly repressive country where political opponents are routinely jailed and tortured.
Addressing supporters in the capital, Caracas, Maduro dedicated his victory to Chavez, whom he named as his successor shortly before his death in 2013. “Long live President Chavez. President Chavez lives!” Maduro shouted.
He added: “I am Nicolás Maduro Moros, the re-elected President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. I will defend our democracy, our laws and our people.”
But the opposition was quick to challenge the results.
“The Venezuelan people and the whole world know what happened,” Gonzalez said in his opening remarks.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been working hard on Gonzalez’s campaign since he was banned, rejected the results, claiming the opposition had won in every state.
“We won, everybody knows it,” she said. “We didn’t just defeat them politically, we defeated them morally, but today we defeated them with the votes,” Machado told reporters, arguing that Gonzalez should be considered the country’s next president.
Edison Research, which conducts closely watched election polls in the United States and other countries, released an exit poll showing González winning 65% of the vote to Maduro’s 31%.
“The official results are absurd,” said Edison vice president Rob Farbman, adding that the company was standing by its polling results. Edison’s exit poll was conducted nationwide and drew preliminary data from 6,846 voters interviewed at 100 polling stations. Local firm Meganalysis projected Gonzalez with 65 percent of the vote and Maduro with just under 14 percent.
The Carter Center, which sent election observers to the vote, called on election officials to immediately release complete results for each polling station.
Maduro’s allies, including Cuba, Bolivia and Honduras, congratulated the president on his victory, while major countries such as the United States, Spain and the European Union expressed deep concern about the election and its results.
Later the same day, Venezuela announced it was expelling all diplomats from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay and withdrawing its representatives from those countries.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had “serious concerns that the announced results do not reflect the will and vote of the Venezuelan people.”
He said the international community was watching the outcome of the vote “very closely” and would respond accordingly.
“It is critical that every vote is counted fairly and transparently, that election authorities share information with the opposition and independent observers immediately and without delay, and that election authorities publish detailed vote tallies,” Blinken said.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Alvarez also called on electoral authorities to make voting information public to “respect the democratic will” of the Venezuelan people.
“The Venezuelan people voted democratically and in very large numbers yesterday.” Alvarez spoke to Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Monday morning.“We want complete transparency. That’s why we are asking for the results to be published per polling station. We have no candidates. We just want an assurance of transparency. Publication of polling station information is important to verify the results.”
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the will of the Venezuelan people must be respected, adding that “it is crucial to ensure full transparency of the electoral process, including a detailed count and access to the vote records at polling stations.”
Many Latin American leaders, including Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric, offered a much more blunt assessment of Sunday’s vote.
“The Maduro regime must understand that the results are incredible.” Bolick wrote to X.“The international community and above all the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand full transparency,” he added. “Chile will not accept any results that cannot be verified.”
Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino said his country was putting relations with Venezuela “on hold” and was withdrawing its diplomats from Caracas until a full review of the results had been conducted.
Others were more cautious. Mexico’s leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would certify a winner only after the full results had been reported.
“We will wait until the vote count is complete,” President Lopez Obrador told reporters.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently said he was “scared” by Maduro’s warning of “bloodshed” if he loses the vote, and praised Venezuela’s “peaceful” election day but said he was closely watching the results.
Celso Amorim, a former foreign minister and now chief diplomatic adviser to President Lula, said the Brazilian government would only comment on the results after reviewing the records.
Amorim, who observed Sunday’s vote, said he was still figuring out what had happened but “the main issue is transparency.”
” [Brazilian] The Government will continue to monitor the situation until it has the data necessary to make an informed decision. [on whether or not to recognise the results]”It’s like any other election,” he said. interview From the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
“We need transparency. I’m not necessarily questioning what’s being said, but the government was supposed to provide records on which to base these figures and they haven’t provided them yet.”
Mr Gonzalez’s campaign has generated a rare wave of optimism among millions of disillusioned Venezuela after a decade in which the country with the world’s largest oil reserves has seen its economy shrink by 80 percent and nearly 8 million people, almost a third of the population, flee the country.
