Confusion And Crisis On The Streets Of Caracas. And The Opposition Posts Their Audited Results
The Oasis Reporters
July 31, 2024
Venezuelans went on a rampage on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela yesterday after the president, Nicolas Maduro was declared winner of the presidential election conducted earlier.
The streets erupted with demonstrations yesterday and the statue of the late iconic leader, Commante Hugo Chavez who presided over the last season of boom in Oil fortune before the bust and his eventual death in 2013.
This was seen being brought down.
BREAKING:
Machado’s team posts their audited report of the true election result:
Gonzalez – 67%
Maduro – 30%
(Based on 80% of the votes).
Meanwhile, here’s an earlier report from Foreign Policy:
Caracas Boiling Point
Anti-government protesters clashed with security forces across Venezuela on Tuesday over the disputed results of the nation’s July 28 presidential election.
Both incumbent President Nicolás Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo González declared victory on Monday, citing different voting numbers. Claims of intimidation and electoral fraud have since sparked mass demonstrations and international calls for a recount.
Protests began on Monday, with security forces and armed Maduro-aligned gangs firing tear gas and rubber bullets at marchers.
At least 11 people have been killed thus far. Local nonprofit Provea said relatives of 25 students who protested in front of Caracas’s Experimental Security University have reported their loved ones missing.
And nearly 750 people have been arrested, including Freddy Superlano, a senior member of the opposition Popular Will party.
Maduro has condemned the protests and accused the opposition of fomenting an attempted “coup” of a “fascist and counterrevolutionary” nature.
“As Monday progressed, it became clear that Maduro was willing to take the next step—and become a fully rogue, isolated, Nicaragua-style regime if necessary to retain power,” reporter Brian Winter wrote for Americas Quarterly.
Venezuela’s government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) declared on Monday that Maduro had won the race, receiving 51 percent of the vote against González’s 44 percent; however, unlike in past elections, the CNE has so far refused to publicly release the full, detailed tally counts.
Popular opposition icon María Corina Machado—who was supposed to face off Maduro before being barred from running in January—said her movement had obtained paper tallies from 73 percent of the country’s polling stations showing that González had received 3.5 million more votes than Maduro.
The election observation department of the Organization of American States (OAS) said on Tuesday that the CNE’s figures were unreliable. “The events of election night confirm a coordinated strategy, unfolding over recent months, to undermine the integrity of the electoral process,” the OAS said.
“What happened shows, once again, that the CNE, its authorities and the Venezuelan electoral system are at the service of the executive power, not citizens.”
China and Russia backed Maduro’s claims on Tuesday. “China will, as always, firmly support Venezuela’s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, national dignity, and social stability and firmly support Venezuela’s just cause of opposing external interference,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said.
There has been no evidence of foreign or other external interference in Venezuela’s election process. Bolivia, Cuba, and Honduras also congratulated Maduro on his claimed victory.
However, nine Latin American countries—Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay—called for an emergency meeting of the OAS’s Permanent Council and said they had “profound concern” over the election results.
Peru ordered all Venezuelan diplomats on Monday to leave the country within 72 hours, citing “serious and arbitrary decisions made today by the Venezuelan regime.”
And several Western powers—including the United States, the European Union, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico—have demanded that Maduro hold a transparent recount overseen by independent auditors.
The OAS will hold a meeting on Wednesday to further discuss Venezuela’s electoral crisis.
