President Nicolás Maduro addressed supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday after electoral authorities declared him the winner of the presidential election.
Fernando Vergara/AP
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Fernando Vergara/AP
BOGOTA, Colombia — Venezuela’s deeply unpopular President Nicolás Maduro won a third term in Sunday’s election, electoral authorities claimed, sparking a massive fraud against his dictatorship to steal opposition. sent candidate Edmundo González to victory.
After hours of delays and uncertainty, the head of the National Electoral Commission, Ives Amoroso, a close Maduro ally, appeared before reporters shortly after midnight on Monday. He announced that with 80% of the votes counted, Maduro had won with 51% to González’s 44%.
However, opposition leader Maria Collina Machado insisted that Gonzalez, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, won 70% of the vote to Maduro’s 30%. He succeeded Machado in the presidential election when the regime banned Machado from running.
“Venezuela has a new president, and he is Edmundo Gonzalez,” Machado told a packed news conference in Caracas.
As evidence, Machado cited several exit polls and quick vote counts showing Gonzalez was on the verge of a landslide victory, as well as paper receipts from voting machines. Exit polls released by Edison Research showed Gonzalez leading Maduro 65% to 31%, and almost all pre-election polls predicted he would defeat Maduro.
“We won in every state, in every demographic group,” Machado said. “It was overwhelming. We won and the whole world knew it. Even the government knew what was going on.
The National Electoral Council waited six hours after polls closed before declaring Maduro the winner, a sign that his inner circle may have been debating how to handle the results. After the Maduro regime failed to derail the opposition campaign through dirty tricks and banning Machado, many political analysts believed Maduro would resort to stealing the election.
“100 percent predictable,” Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas think tank, said of Maduro’s victory.
Maduro, 61, was first elected in 2013 and his mentor Hugo Chávez founded Venezuela’s socialist revolution in 1999. Widely despised, the crisis has left nearly 8 million Venezuelans stranded and about a quarter of the population fleeing the country. He has also been accused by the United States of drug trafficking and terrorism, and his regime is under investigation by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
“I have a clear conscience,” Maduro told supporters gathered at the presidential palace in Miraflores. “In this new term you have given me, I pledge that I will risk my life to transform Venezuela and lead us towards a prosperous future of economic growth, peace and social happiness.”
The Biden administration threatened to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela’s vital oil industry, and other foreign governments immediately loudly protested.
國務卿安東尼·布林肯表示：「我們嚴重擔心公佈的結果未能反映委內瑞拉人民的意願或選票。至關重要的是，每張選票都必須得到公平和透明的統計，選舉官員必須立即與委內瑞拉人民分享information.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric wrote on X: “The Maduro regime must understand that the results they announced are unbelievable. Chile will not recognize any results that cannot be verified.
Brazil, Colombia and other Latin American countries have expressed similar concerns.
Anger and frustration with Maduro was evident on Sunday, with some regime loyalists loudly booing as they showed up at polling stations to cast their votes. Some Venezuelans are convinced that Gonzalez will win, chanting the popular opposition slogan: “It will fall. It will fall. This regime is going to fall!”
Supporters of President Nicolas Maduro celebrate after electoral authorities declared him the winner of the presidential election, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Caracas, Venezuela.
Christian Hernandez/AP
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Christian Hernandez/AP
Some Venezuelans were so eager to vote for the opposition that they lined up at polling stations the night before the election. Elidio Santana, who sells bottled water on the streets of Caracas, waited in line for four hours to cast his vote for Gonzalez.
“We’ve been waiting for 25 years” for a change of government, Santana said, adding that a few more hours wouldn’t matter. “We’ve had enough. This country needs change.
Of the approximately 5.5 million Venezuelans of voting age living abroad, only about 69,000 have been able to register to vote due to red tape imposed by the Maduro regime. One immigrant who successfully voted was Carolina Martínez, a 50-year-old nurse who lives in neighboring Colombia but returned to Venezuela to vote. She predicted that Gonzalez’s victory would persuade Venezuelans living abroad to return home.
“Many people want to return to Venezuela and see their homeland prosper again,” said Martinez, whose four sons also live abroad.
But with both sides claiming victory, Venezuela could face prolonged unrest as many opposition supporters pledge to take to the streets in protest. Gonzalez urged them to remain peaceful as the opposition collects evidence of his election victory, such as paper receipts from voting machines.
“Our fight will continue,” Gonzalez said at a news conference earlier Monday. “We will not stop until the will of the people is respected.
Carrie Kahn is from Caracas.
