- Opposition leader urges Maduro to step down
- Electoral commission declares Maduro the winner
- Massive protests erupt, disputing election results
The opposition leader seeking to end Nicolás Maduro’s totalitarian rule has encouraged the Venezuelan strongman to realize that his departure from office is imminent. The call came as thousands of protestors took to the streets to reject Maduro’s disputed claim to a third term in office.
The government-controlled electoral commission declared Venezuela’s incumbent president the election winner of Sunday’s election on Monday morning.
Maduro claimed an “irreversible” victory over opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and his campaign partner, conservative activist María Corina Machado, despite considerable international misgivings.
Later on Monday, González and Machado said they could confirm their victory after getting 73.2% of the voting tallies from polling stations. Polling station tallies are official records that show the number of votes cast by the time each polling station closes.
Machado encouraged the president to accept the end of his 11-year administration, during which Venezuela experienced a horrific economic and humanitarian crisis that prompted millions to migrate abroad.
“He should understand that he was defeated,” she added of Maduro, who was democratically elected following the death of his mentor, President Hugo Chávez, in 2013, but has since led Venezuela in a more repressive and anti-democratic manner.
Machado denied Maduro’s prior declaration that his re-election was “irreversible.” “I would say his departure is irreversible,” she told me.
Minutes earlier, Machado and González, a former diplomat who stood for president in her stead after being barred, claimed their campaign had irrefutable evidence that González had won by a landslide in Sunday’s election.
Maduro claims he defeated González with more than 5.1 million votes to his opponent’s 4.4 million. However, Machado, Venezuela’s “iron lady,” asserted that her candidate had won, citing counts that showed he had received 6.2 million votes to Maduro’s 2.7 million.
“Edmundo González is the president-elect,” she said to jubilant cheers from hundreds of supporters gathered outside their hillside campaign headquarters beneath Caracas’ majestic El Ávila mountain.
As Machado addressed the crowd, thousands of protesters remained on the streets of Caracas and other towns following a day of protests that included many violent incidents with security authorities and pro-Maduro paramilitaries.
Surprisingly, many of those protestors came from enormous hillside slums long regarded as strongholds of the Chavismo movement, which has ruled Venezuela for the past 25 years.
Rafael Cantillo shook with wrath as he marched through Caracas with hundreds of other residents from one of these communities. “Maduro stole the elections… “It’s a swindle; everyone knows it,” raged the 45-year-old from Petare, a sprawling working-class neighborhood.
Katiuska Camargo, a community leader from Petare, stated Maduro was defeated in neighborhoods where locals were tired of the deprivation his administration had overseen. “This man didn’t win. “He did not!” she exclaimed as the crowd grew.
Petare demonstrators marched west toward the city center and the presidential palace, chanting, “Petare is here. “And Edmundo is president!”
Throughout the day, social media was awash with stories of opposition marches starting in poor districts across town, as well as fights with security personnel and pro-Maduro biker gangs known as colectivos, who were caught on camera shooting into the air.
“What is happening isn’t just fraud; it’s a coup d’état,” said Jesús Herrera, a 37-year-old cook who joined a march. Herrera stated that the people who took to the streets were “moved by [Maduro’s] lie.” “It’s such an obvious lie,” he remarked of the president’s claim to have won re-election despite polls giving his opponent a significant lead. “Everyone thinks the same thing.”
There were additional protests in other parts of Venezuela, with at least three Hugo Chávez sculptures demolished during the day. Many compared the scenes to the dramatic photos of Saddam Hussein’s statue being destroyed in central Baghdad during the Iraq War. Protesters in Portuguesa state were caught on camera vandalizing a propaganda billboard with a photo of Maduro and a message promising “more changes and transformation.”
Protesters reportedly invaded Maiquetía international airport, located north of Caracas. At least one of the arriving flights was delayed.
Maduro’s backers, who blame US sanctions for Venezuela’s economic troubles, scheduled their protests for Tuesday afternoon to demonstrate widespread support, which is likely to exacerbate tensions on the streets of Caracas.
Maduro stated in a television address that groups of “delinquents” had assaulted the regional election authority’s offices in Coro. The president said that such actions were part of “a violent counter-revolution” undertaken by criminal and fascist far-right fanatics.
“The law must be respected,” Maduro proclaimed, saying that such acts were intended to cause “an escalation of violence” and eventually lead to the opposition’s “golden dream – seizing power.”
“The gringos are behind this plan,” Maduro stated.
The election and its results have been hotly questioned within and outside the region. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated that Washington had “serious concerns that the announced result does not reflect the will or votes of the Venezuelan people,” the Organization of American States planned to convene in Washington on Wednesday to examine the matter.
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Peru, which is home to almost 1.5 million Venezuelan exiles, has responded to the Maduro regime’s “serious and arbitrary decisions” by ordering all Venezuelan ambassadors to leave the country within 72 hours.
However, Maduro’s supporters in Cuba, Bolivia, and Honduras have hailed his declaration of triumph, as has Russia, which has pressured González and Machado to accept defeat.
“We see that the opposition refuses to acknowledge its defeat. But we feel that the opposition should do this and congratulate the winner of these elections,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
He stressed that external forces should not try to incite instability in Venezuela, which has become a critical Russian partner under Maduro’s leadership.
It is critical that these attempts to shake up the situation inside Venezuela are not fueled by third countries – third parties – and that Venezuela remains free of external influence, according to Peskov.
According to Chinese official media, President Xi Jinping congratulated Maduro on his Sunday poll victory.
