Protesters take to the streets in Venezuela over contested presidential election

CARACAS, Venezuela, and BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Amid accusations that Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro had brazenly stolen Sunday’s presidential election, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest while the opposition gathered evidence to show that its candidate, Edmundo González, had won in a landslide.

Venezuelans across the country banged pots and pans, marched and chanted anti-Maduro slogans. In western Falcón state, a group of protesters tore down a statue of the late President Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s mentor who ushered in Venezuela’s leftist revolution a quarter-century ago. In Caracas, they gathered in front of the heavily guarded presidential palace where they sang the national anthem.

“I’m here because I want a change. I can no longer stand this government,” said Deiker Boadas, 18, as he joined one of the marches in Caracas. “This was fraud. Maduro didn’t win anywhere.”

Anger was also rising overseas. The United States, the European Union and many Latin American countries that have been inundated by Venezuelan migrants fleeing an economic crisis at home, demanded an audit of Sunday’s results.

After hours of total silence, the pro-Maduro National Electoral Council early Monday morning claimed that President Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for González.

But the electoral council did not provide any detailed voter tallies and is headed by Elvis Amoroso, a Maduro loyalist. Indeed, it was Amoroso who, while serving as comptroller general in 2023, banned opposition leader María Corina Machado from running for president, prompting her to recruit González as her stand-in.

In sharp contrast to the electoral council’s data, pre-election polls, quick counts, exit polls and voter tallies all indicated overwhelming support for González. One exit poll by the respected U.S. firm Edison Research showed González leading Maduro 65% to 31%.

One of the firm’s analysts, Rob Farbman, told Colombia’s RCN Radio that he had never been involved in exit polling anywhere in the world where the firm’s results diverged so radically from the official vote count. Speaking of the electoral council’s numbers, he said: “It took a lot of fraud to get to these results.”

The Biden administration was also skeptical. One official, who spoke to reporters in Washington on condition of anonymity, said: “By engaging in repression and electoral manipulation, and by declaring a winner without the detailed precinct by precinct polling results ... Maduro representatives have stripped the supposed election results they announced of any credibility.”

Argentina, Chile and Peru said they would not recognize Maduro’s victory while many other Latin American nations called for an independent audit of the ballots.

In response, late Monday, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil posted at statement on X announcing the expulsion of diplomats from seven Latin American countries, accusing them of being “openly committed to the most sordid ideological postures of international fascism.”

The Atlanta-based Carter Center, one of the few independent organizations allowed to monitor the balloting, called on the electoral council “to immediately publish the presidential election results at the polling station level.”

González, Machado and other opposition leaders spent most of Monday behind closed doors figuring out how to make their case of voter fraud. Besides exit poll results, they are relying on the paper voting tallies printed out when people cast their ballots to prove that the election was stolen.

By early Monday evening, the opposition had called a press conference, where Machado declared they had “a way to prove the truth of what happened” on polling day. Machado claimed they had access to 73% of the voter tally sheets. She called for all Venezuelans to come out on to the streets on Tuesday and gather peacefully to show their support.

For its part, the Maduro government was busy stitching together a completely different version of events.

Providing no evidence, Attorney General William Tarek Saab said Monday that the electoral system had been the victim of a cyberattack coordinated allegedly from the southern European country of North Macedonia. Saab blamed the alleged hacking operation on the opposition and announced a criminal investigation against Machado and two other opposition leaders.

Moving quickly to head off what appeared to be a growing backlash by angry voters, National Electoral Council President Amoroso on Monday afternoon certified Maduro’s victory without providing any new voter data on the election. Indeed, the council’s website, where results are supposed to be posted, remained offline.

In a speech, Maduro declared that his election was “irreversible” and signaled that his administration, which has nearly strangled Venezuela’s democracy during 11 years in power, could engage in another crackdown should opposition protests swell.

“This time we will show no weakness,” he warned.

During anti-government marches in 2014 and 2017, government security forces killed a handful of protesters, and detained and tortured thousands more. The abuses prompted the International Criminal Court to open an investigation against the Maduro government for alleged crimes against humanity.

The unknown quantity is the response of the military — which has so far remained loyal to Maduro.

But as Maduro swaggered in the aftermath of Sunday’s election, some political analysts said there was still time for Maduro to backtrack — and for the opposition to turn the tables.

“This isn’t over yet. Maduro has to convince the ruling elite that he can keep things under control, but both he and the military know that he can’t govern a country in flames,” said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. “He’s effectively inviting the biggest loyalty test he’s faced in years. I doubt Venezuelan elites are eager for six more years of repression, sanctions, and economic catastrophe.”