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Did Venezuela's Maduro just lose the election and wont...

snitzoid

This petro state was one of the most prosperous in South America in the 1990s, then Maduro ran the country into the ground and stole billions.


If Eisenhower was president, instead of welcoming their poorest & least educated (w no job skills) into the US and putting them up in hotels he would have simply had Maduro eliminated. Problem solved. Where's the CIA when you need them?


Venezuela’s Maduro Moves to Silence Opposition After Disputed Election

Protesters rallied against alleged voting fraud as regime begins arresting detractors

By Kejal Vyas and Ryan Dubé, WSJ

Updated July 30, 2024 11:38 pm ET


CARACAS, Venezuela—Strongman Nicolás Maduro’s regime vowed to crush a burgeoning protest movement against election results that cement his grip on power, amid growing evidence he lost by a wide margin and violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces.


Authorities had already begun arresting some opposition leaders, while a senior Maduro aide said police should lock up the president’s main challenger, 74-year-old retired diplomat Edmundo González, and María Corina Machado, a top opposition figure. Riot police on motorcycles and armored vehicles fired tear gas on crowds of opposition protesters Tuesday, as a coalition of four human-rights groups reported they had documented at least 11 deaths during countrywide street clashes.


Worry spread of more violence as Maduro—who promised a “bloodbath” if he lost the election—called on his supporters to rally around the presidential palace, a day after a host of angry protesters marched there and fought with government backers.


White House officials said Tuesday they were “deeply concerned” about the situation unfolding in Venezuela and questioned the election results, but Washington has few points of leverage to dislodge Maduro. He has consolidated military, police, judiciary and media power since the death of his socialist mentor Hugo Chávez in 2013 and given Russia, China and other American rivals a foothold in the Western Hemisphere, strengthening his regime.


Restoring sanctions on Venezuelan oil—which the Biden administration lifted to coax Maduro to hold fair elections—has the potential to raise gasoline prices in the middle of the presidential election. But doing nothing could have consequences too: Nearly eight million Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years, exacerbating a migrant crisis on America’s southern border, and another six years of Maduro in power could expand the exodus, regional analysts said.


“They are in a pickle,” said Christopher Hernandez-Roy, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.


President Biden held a 30-minute phone call with one of Maduro’s top foreign allies, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday about Venezuela, a call that was requested by the U.S., said people close to the Brazilian government. “We agree on the need for an immediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data at the polling station level by the Venezuelan electoral authorities,” Biden said later Tuesday.


Da Silva’s leftist political party has already recognized Maduro as the winner of the election, putting the Brazilian president in a bind as he has made defense of democracy a keystone of his legacy.


Some Democrats began pushing the Biden administration Tuesday to condemn the election. “It’s absolutely essential that we be very clear that Maduro was not elected as president of Venezuela,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday.


The Venezuelan opposition has moved to show concrete evidence that the election was stolen. Polls showed that González was leading by 25 percentage points or more in the days before the voting, but the regime-controlled election council declared Maduro the winner with 80% of the vote counted, saying he had won 51%. The government has said they would release the data in the coming days and blame the delay on opposition-linked hackers who they say attacked their electoral system on voting day.


The opposition said it had collected data from 73% of the country’s voting stations on its own and compiled it in a publicly accessible database on Tuesday. Using their national identification, Venezuelans can sign in and review a scanned tally sheet from their voting station showing how many votes went to each candidate. The opposition says the database shows that their candidate, González, received 6.3 million votes to 2.8 million for Maduro.


“I found mine, the proof is there,” said Celina Ramirez, an opposition supporter who said she was able to log into the website to locate the tally sheet from her east Caracas voting center, which she said showed González receiving the lion’s share of votes. “There’s no way the regime can fool everyone with their tricks,” she added, carrying a Venezuelan flag as she walked with her family to join an opposition rally.


The Carter Center, one of the few international organizations invited to monitor the elections, said it couldn’t verify the results because of the government’s failure to publish comprehensive polling data at the local level. “Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic,” the Atlanta-based center said in a statement that was issued after it withdrew its 17-member technical team from the country.


The opposition hopes the release of the database will increase pressure on Maduro’s autocratic regime to make public the detailed results of the election.


Venezuelans were bracing for a security crackdown as it became clear Maduro wouldn’t leave power easily. Regional analysts said he could expect to be arrested or exiled if he left the presidency, as would many of his associates who help keep him in power.


On Tuesday, opposition politician Freddy Superlano, a former lawmaker who in the past led protests against the regime, was detained by armed men on a Caracas street, according to opposition activists.


Videos of the arrest, posted on social media by opposition leaders and neighbors, showed Superlano and another activist being pulled out of an SUV by people wearing black masks and carrying rifles at the entrance of a residential parking lot.


“We are very concerned about the harassment and detention of members of the democratic opposition,” said the U.S. Embassy’s chief of mission for Venezuela, Francisco Palmieri, calling it an “unjustified escalation.”


Maduro’s allies, including the top brass of the army, said they were determined to crush what they called a coup attempt that has left nearly 50 military and police officers injured and scores of government offices in regional cities set ablaze.


“With fascism there’s no dialogue. With fascism there’s no forgiveness,” Jorge Rodríguez, a senior Maduro aide, told supporters at the regime-controlled congress, who responded with a standing ovation.


Maduro has survived financial and diplomatic isolation before. The U.S. and its allies deemed Maduro an illegitimate leader after his 2018 re-election was marred by fraud allegations.


Then in 2019, the U.S. and dozens of European and Latin American nations recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state. The U.S. leveled a series of financial and oil-sector sanctions on the country. But Maduro weathered that pressure thanks to the support of China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. Those countries congratulated Maduro on his re-election claim this week.


On Tuesday, Mexico’s left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, criticized other nations for pressuring Venezuela to address the widespread accusations of fraud.


“Why do they have to meddle in the affairs of other countries?” López Obrador said Tuesday in a press conference.


Venezuela cut diplomatic ties with seven Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile and Peru, that questioned Sunday’s election results. Peru’s foreign minister recognized González as president elect.


Argentina’s government said Tuesday that Venezuela had cut electricity to its embassy in Caracas, where six opposition campaign workers have sought asylum after the regime arrested opposition activists during the campaign.


“The fraud that the dictator Nicolás Maduro has committed is nothing more or less than a Pyrrhic victory,” said Argentine President Javier Milei. “He thinks he’s won a battle, but the most important thing is that the Venezuelan lions have awakened.”


Gordon Lubold in Washington and Samantha Pearson in São Paulo contributed to this article.


Write to Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com and Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com


Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Appeared in the July 31, 2024, print edition as 'Venezuela Moves to Silence Opposition'.

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