Consuelo Marquez holds up a Venezuelan flag as police block a demonstration against official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after voting in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday.
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BOGOTA, Colombia — Amid widespread accusations that Venezuela's dictator Nicolas Maduro brazenly rigged Sunday's presidential election, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest as the opposition gathered evidence that its own candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had won in a landslide victory.
People across Venezuela banged pots and pans, marched and chanted anti-Maduro slogans. In the western state of Falcon, protesters vandalized a statue of the late President Hugo Chavez, Mr. Maduro's mentor and the leader of Venezuela's leftist revolution 25 years ago. In Caracas, they gathered outside the heavily guarded presidential palace and sang the national anthem.
“We came here for change. We can't stand this government anymore,” said Dacre Boadas, 18, who took part in the Caracas protest. “This is a scam. Maduro hasn't won anywhere.”
Anger is also growing abroad. The United States, the European Union and many Latin American countries that have been inundated with Venezuelan migrants fleeing the economic crisis at home called for an audit of Sunday's findings.
After hours of complete silence, the pro-Maduro National Electoral Council claimed early Monday that President Maduro had been elected to a third term with 51% of the vote, compared with 44% for González.
But the electoral commission, which does not release detailed vote counts, is chaired by Maduro ally Elvis Amoroso, who, as auditor general in 2023, was the same one who barred opposition leader María Corina Machado from running for president and encouraged her to appoint González as her deputy.
Police blocked protesters on a highway in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday, a day after voting, during a demonstration against official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection.
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In contrast to the electoral commission data, pre-election polls, early polls, exit polls and voter tallies all point to overwhelming support for Gonzalez. An exit poll by the respected US firm Edison Research showed him leading Maduro 65% to 31%.
One of the firm's analysts, Rob Farbman, told Colombia's RCN radio that the firm had never been involved in an exit poll anywhere in the world where its results deviated so dramatically from the official vote count. “It took a lot of fraud to get to that point,” he said of the electoral commission's figures.
The Biden administration was also skeptical. “By resorting to repression and electoral manipulation, and declaring a winner without detailed precinct-by-precinct results, Maduro's representatives have discredited the results they purportedly announced,” one official told reporters in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Argentina, Chile and Peru have said they will not recognise Maduro's victory, while many other Latin American countries are calling for an independent audit of the vote.
In response, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Ivan Gil published a statement on X late Monday announcing the withdrawal of diplomats from seven Latin American countries and accusing them of attempting to interfere in the election.
The Atlanta-based Carter Center, one of the few independent organizations authorized to monitor the vote, called on election officials to “immediately release the results of the presidential election at the polling place level.”
Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, right, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado hold hands during a press conference the day after the election in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday.
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Gonzalez, Machado and other opposition leaders spent much of Monday behind closed doors trying to find ways to prove vote fraud. In addition to exit polls, they are relying on paper vote tally sheets printed at the time of voting to prove the election was rigged.
By Monday evening, the opposition held a press conference where Machado declared they had “a way to prove the truth of what happened” on election day. Machado claimed she had access to 73 percent of the voter tally. She called on all Venezuelans to take to the streets on Tuesday to assemble peacefully and show their support.
Meanwhile, Maduro's government has been busy putting together a very different version of events.
Attorney General William Tarek Saab said on Monday, without offering evidence, that the election system was hit by a cyberattack he said was orchestrated from the southern European country of North Macedonia. Saab blamed the opposition for the hacking and announced he was opening a criminal investigation into Machado and two other opposition leaders.
Amid what appeared to be a growing backlash from angry voters, National Electoral Council President Amoroso acted swiftly, certifying Maduro's victory on Monday afternoon without providing any new voter data on the election. In fact, the council's website where the results would have been posted remained offline.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro attended a National Electoral Commission ceremony on Monday certifying him as the winner of the country's presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela.
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In his speech, Maduro declared his election “irreversible” and suggested his government, which has all but stifled democracy in Venezuela during its 11 years in power, could again crack down on opposition protests if they escalate.
“This time we will not show weakness,” he warned.
During anti-government protests in 2014 and 2017, government security forces killed a small number of protesters and detained and tortured thousands more. These abuses led the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into the Maduro regime for alleged crimes against humanity.
What remains to be seen is the reaction of the military, which so far has remained loyal to President Maduro.
But Maduro's assertive posture after Sunday's election led some political analysts to say there is still time for him to backtrack and for the opposition to turn the tide.
“It's not over yet. Maduro needs to convince the establishment that he has things under control, but both he and the military know they can't govern a country that's on fire,” said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. “The president is effectively facing his biggest test of loyalty in years. It's hard to imagine Venezuela's elite wanting another six years of repression, sanctions and economic collapse.”
