Anti-Maduro Activists Take to the Streets After ‘Tainted’ Venezuelan Election

What a crock of an election, but that’s what you get when you allow an authoritarian to entrench himself like Nicolas Maduro has done in Venezuela. Maduro has carried on the failed socialist legacy of the late Hugo Chavez. The Chavistas have perverted the legislature and the courts, so let’s not be shocked that the 2024 elections weren’t rigged. It likely was a rigged election—no, it was most definitely a fugazi result. The opposition turnout was reportedly historic, and last night was marked by reports of national policemen barring people from voting:

Earlier this morning, Maduro was declared the winner, which no one believed. The New York Times correctly reported that this election was “tainted” (via NYT):

Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, was declared the winner of the country’s tumultuous presidential election early Monday, despite enormous momentum from an opposition movement that had been convinced this was the year it would oust Mr. Maduro’s socialist-inspired party. 

The vote was riddled with irregularities, and citizens were angrily protesting the government’s actions at voting centers even as the results were announced. 

With 80 percent of voting stations counted, the country’s election authority claimed that Mr. Maduro had received 51.2 percent of the vote, while the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González, had received 44.2 percent. 

Mr. Maduro’s government has invented election results before, and this tally was immediately called into question by the opposition and by several officials in the region. 

“We won and the whole world knows it,” the country’s most popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, told reporters in Caracas, the capital, early Monday. She called the declared result “impossible,” given information her team had collected about turnout. 

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, said the U.S. government had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.” 

Officials at some polling places refused to release printouts verifying the electronic vote count, and there were reports of voter intimidation and other irregularities. 

The Associated Press has more: 

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Venezuela on Monday to protest what they said was an attempt by President Nicolás Maduro to steal the country’s disputed election a day after the political opposition and the entrenched incumbent both claimed victory. 

Shortly after the National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro’s ruling party, announced that he had won a third six-year term, angry protesters began marching through the capital, Caracas, and cities across Venezuela. 

In the capital, the protests were mostly peaceful, but when dozens of riot gear-clad national police officers blocked the caravan, a brawl broke. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom threw stones and other objects at officers who had stationed themselves on a main avenue of an upper-class district. 

The demonstrations followed an election that was among the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting hopes that Venezuela could avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule. The winner was to take control of an economy recovering from collapse and a population desperate for change.

In the aftermath, Maduro is trying to pick a fight with Elon Musk, while shots were reportedly fired at anti-Maduro protesters in the capital of Caracas. Some military units withdrew to permit the protests. We’ll see if that remains since activists took over Simon Bolivar Airport. 

We’ll keep you updated.

UPDATE: Police and military units are starting to defy government orders regarding the anti-Maduro protests.