As protests rock Venezuela after Sunday’s election, longtime allies appear to have abandoned President Nicolas Maduro, who claimed victory with 51.2 percent of the vote.
Maduro soon took control of Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia, and Russia, China and IranBut he was not recognized by the nominally leftist governments of the region’s key countries: Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
“Leading diplomatic players in the region are demanding evidence. [of his win]”It’s a very shaky and shaky argument,” said Christopher Hernandez Roy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.
“I think all three of them recognize that the level of fraud is so astronomical that no sane person could believe the results. So it will be very hard for them to join the usual chorus of leftist governments congratulating Maduro on his victory.”
The Atlanta-based Carter Center, which has sent observers to Venezuela, said Tuesday night that the election “does not meet international standards for electoral integrity and cannot be described as democratic.”
The United States and Canada have responded somewhat more mutedly to Maduro’s victory declaration.
Many citizens expressed sadness the day after the country’s opposition and incumbent President Nicolas Maduro both declared victory in the presidential election.
Washington and Ottawa have called on Venezuela to release detailed voting results. european unionHowever, neither the United States nor Canada have yet officially declared rival candidate Edmundo Gonzalez the winner.
The Trudeau government took a much more active role five years ago when Juan Guaido emerged as Maduro’s rival. Canada hosted Venezuela’s opposition in Ottawa and, along with Peru, formed the Lima Group of countries that want to oust Maduro by peaceful means.
Lula demands receipts
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has historically been sympathetic to the socialist movement started by the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. spoke on Tuesday He met with U.S. President Joe Biden and made it clear that the two agreed to call on Maduro to provide evidence of his victory.
In Caracas, Lula’s special envoy, Celso Amorim, met with Maduro on Tuesday to press him to release the full election results. So far, Maduro’s government has only released the tallies, not a poll-by-poll breakdown.
Later that day, Lula appeared on Brazil’s Globo television and said the solution to Venezuela’s impasse was simple: “Present your voting record.” He added that “those who disagree have the right to express their opinion and to prove why they disagree, just as the government has the right to prove that it is right.”
Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Posted by Luis Gilberto Murillo Video Message At X, he said, “It is necessary for peace in Venezuela to know the final results of all polling stations, and for them to be audited by the world.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) warned against outside interference and refrained from directly criticizing Venezuela’s leaders, but he also called for transparency and the publication of detailed vote tallies, as did his successor, President-elect Claudia Scheinbaum.
Those calling for detailed documentation know it will be nearly impossible for the Maduro regime to substantiate its claims with responses from voting machines.
However, Venezuela’s opposition claims it won the election by a landslide and has evidence to prove it.
Voting Record
The election took place in over 30,000 polling stations, each of which voted electronically. The results were printed on paper ballots, called “actas,” with a unique QR code and an alphanumeric signature. By law, volunteer poll watchers have the right to receive copies of the ballots.
The opposition is far more organised and united than before, and claims to have recruited tens of thousands of observers to monitor the election across the country, obtaining ballots from nearly every polling station and rapidly uploading them online.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked whether Canada would accept the results of Venezuela’s election.
As of late Tuesday night, 81% of all ballots had been digitized, giving Edmundo González more than seven million votes to Maduro’s less than half that number.
“We have a record that shows our decisive and mathematically irreversible victory,” said Gonzalez, a 73-year-old former diplomat who announced his candidacy after Venezuela’s electoral commission barred opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from running.
“By a two-to-one margin, Local pollster “International polling companies like Clear Path Strategies and Edison Research were also releasing results before the vote,” said Hernandez Roy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Some were saying the opposition would get 65 to 70 percent of the vote. Others were just saying Edmundo Gonzalez had at least a 25-point lead over Maduro. So this is consistent with the polls.”
Diplomatic tensions
On Tuesday morning, Peru recognized González as its next president, as the opposition uploaded a record of their actions.
Within hours, Venezuela severed diplomatic ties with Peru and six other Latin American countries, ordering the closure of embassies and the withdrawal of diplomats, all of which had alleged or implied there had been fraud in Sunday’s vote tally.
Among them was Chile’s socialist president, Gabriel Boric. Listed on X account “It’s hard to believe the results announced by the Maduro regime.”
At the time of publication, many of the diplomats from the seven countries targeted in the expulsion remained in Caracas.
Argentine President Javier Milley has long been one of Chavismo’s fiercest critics.
“Argentina will not tolerate new wrongdoings,” Milley warned on his X account, adding, “We expect that this time the military will defend democracy and the will of the people.”
of The most dramatic situation The Argentine Embassy in Caracas has been under siege by undercover agents of the Maduro regime since the terrorist attack on Sunday, and diplomats inside say the electricity has been cut off.
Members of Machado’s campaign team had taken refuge in the embassy, which was there on Monday night shortly after diplomatic ties were severed. Surrounded They were killed in plain clothes by “colectivos,” an unofficial militia group of the ruling Socialist Party. Often armed.
Maduro Responded “You traitor, you coward, you can’t fight me a fight,” he said, adding that Millay was a “Nazi-fascist” with the face of a monster.
Arrests begin
A rally between the two sides in Caracas on Tuesday afternoon appeared to confirm that Maduro’s government has lost support.
Government Officials Said Opposition leaders Machado and Gonzalez were expected to be arrested but had not yet been arrested at press time.
The opposition party said that one of its leaders, Freddy Superano, Taken from a house in Caracas By masked men in black uniforms. Less visible figures in the opposition Similar kidnappings in different parts of the country.
By evening, there were unconfirmed reports that arrest warrants had already been issued for Machado and Gonzalez.
Arresting Machado is not easy: She is often accompanied by a volunteer escort of hundreds of motorbikes and legions of her supporters, a tactic her campaign perfected as they traveled around Venezuela during the election campaign.
Focus on the military
The future course of action for the Venezuelan government and opposition remains unclear.
The socialist movement started by President Hugo Chavez, once popular with a majority of voters, began to lose support on Venezuela’s streets after Chavez died a decade ago, a trend that now appears complete, but Maduro remains in control of the military.
Both sides are closely monitoring the situation.
Machado is Openly preached Attempts to persuade members of the security forces to switch sides have so far met with little success, but two army captains Video published Yesterday she called on fellow soldiers to support her.
“The time has come to make the right decisions in this historic moment,” Capt. Javier Nieto said. “It is clear that we have a new president.”
The loyalty of ordinary soldiers is uncertain, and the government is hesitant to test them by ordering them to open fire on crowds where their friends and family might be.
“The security forces are not monolithic,” Hernández Roy said. “Average Venezuelan soldiers and police officers also struggle to meet basic needs and provide for their families.”
Maduro Warned Machado warned that the United Socialist Party would not leave power without a “fratricidal civil war.” Spoke to a large crowd Yesterday, the opposition said: “We will not negotiate the outcome. We will only negotiate the transition of power.”
The potential for large-scale violent conflict is increasing.
