A Venezuelan national holds a sign with a message that reads in Spanish: “Free Venezuela”, and “Out Maduro”, during a demonstration in support of opposition Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, in front of the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called Thursday, August 1, 2024 for protests “in every city” in the nation on Saturday to denounce the disputed reelection of President Nicolas Maduro.

The oil-rich Latin American nation was plunged into political crisis after Mr. Maduro was announced the victor of Sunday, July 28 ‘s election — a result that defied pre-election polls and has drawn global criticism.

“We must remain firm, organized and mobilized with the pride of having achieved a historic victory on July 28, and the awareness that to claim victory we will also go all the way,” Machado said on social media.

Earlier Thursday, she wrote in the Wall Street Journal that she was in hiding and “fearing for my life” after Mr. Maduro’s contested victory, which led to hundreds of arrests following deadly protests this week.

Machado reiterated her claim that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was the rightful winner, saying he won “67 percent to 30 percent” based on tallies obtained from most of the nation’s polling stations.

The government-aligned National Electoral Council declared that Mr. Maduro won with 51 percent of the vote. Mr. Maduro has said he has evidence of his victory and was “ready to present 100 percent of the records.”

“You have blood on your hands,” Mr. Maduro said July 31, referring to Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado. “They should be behind bars.”

Machado — who was barred from running in the election by institutions loyal to Mr. Maduro — said most opposition figures were now in hiding.

“I could be captured as I write these words,” Machado wrote, calling for “those who reject authoritarianism and support democracy to join the Venezuelan people in our noble cause.”

In a message to his supporters, Gonzalez Urrutia wrote on X: “I will never leave you alone, and I will always defend your will!”

At least 20 people have died in protests that erupted after the election, according to Machado, while more than 1,000 have been jailed.

Venezuela’s supreme court has summoned all presidential candidates to a hearing on Friday afternoon following Mr. Maduro’s request that it initiate a process to investigate and certify the election result.

Diplomatic row

After days of anxiety that left streets largely deserted, normal life has begun to resume in the capital Caracas, with shops opening and public transport operating.

But regional spats were widening, with Venezuela withdrawing diplomats from eight critical Latin American countries and asking envoys from those nations to leave its territory.

Argentine President Javier Milei said his country’s diplomatic staff left Venezuela on Thursday and thanked Brazil for taking custody of its embassy.

Six Venezuelan opposition figures are currently under protection at the Argentine embassy.

Brazil’s foreign ministry announced it was also taking over representation of Peru in Venezuela.

Peru recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela’s legitimate president on Tuesday, prompting Caracas to sever diplomatic ties.

The United States and the European Union have demanded Venezuelan authorities release detailed voting data, with top US diplomat Antony Blinken saying there was “overwhelming evidence” that Gonzalez Urrutia won the election.

In a joint statement, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico urged an “impartial verification” of the result, also calling for Caracas to publish voting data broken down by polling stations.

‘Bloodbath’

The July 28 elections were held in the shadow of Mr. Maduro’s warnings of a “bloodbath” if he were to lose, and amid widespread fear the vote would be rigged.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said more than 1,000 people were arrested in protests that erupted on Monday and Tuesday in the wake of the election.

He also said one military officer was killed and 77 officials were injured.

Mr. Maduro has led the oil-rich country since 2013, presiding over a GDP drop of 80 percent that pushed more than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.

He is accused of locking up critics and harassing opponents in a climate of rising authoritarianism.

Mr. Maduro’s previous reelection, in 2018, was rejected by dozens of Latin American and other countries, including the United States and EU members.

Years of damaging US sanctions failed to dislodge the president, who enjoys loyalty from the military leadership, electoral bodies, courts and other state institutions, as well as the backing of Russia, China and Cuba.

President Nicolás Maduro on July 31 asked Venezuela’s high court to conduct an audit of the Presidential election after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory, drawing criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.

Mr. Maduro told reporters that the ruling party is also ready to show all the vote tally sheets from Sunday’s election.

Anti-Maduro protests spread as Venezuelan opposition says he stole vote

“I throw myself before justice,” he said outside the Supreme Tribunal of Justice headquarters in the capital, Caracas, adding that he is “willing to be summoned, questioned, investigated.”

This is Mr. Maduro’s first concession to demands for more transparency about the election. However, the court is closely aligned with his government; the court’s justices are proposed by federal officials and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Mr. Maduro’s sympathisers.

Also Read: Election campaign closes in Venezuela even as Maduro warns of a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses

The Carter Center, which sent a delegation to Venezuela to monitor the election, criticized Mr. Maduro’s audit request, saying the court would not provide an independent review.

“You have another government institution, which is appointed by the government, to verify the government numbers for the election results, which are in question,” said Jennie K. Lincoln, who led the delegation. “This is not an independent assessment.”

The Atlanta-based group said on July 30 that it was unable to verify the announced results and criticised what it called a “complete lack of transparency” in declaring Mr. Maduro the winner. Venezuela’s electoral authorities allowed the Carter Center to send 17 observers.

Maduro’s main challenger, Edmundo González, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed. They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Mr. Maduro has lost.

Mr. Maduro insisted to reporters that there had been a plot against his government and that the electoral system was hacked. Asked later on during a news conference why electoral authorities have not released detailed vote counts, he said the National Electoral Council has come under attack, including cyber-attacks.

“Engineers are fighting right now” to solve those attacks, he said without elaborating.

The government presented some videos that the President said showed people attacking and torching some electoral offices.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said more than 1,000 people related to some of those attacks have been arrested.

Pressure has been building on the President since the election. The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has yet to release any results broken down by voting machine, which it did in past elections.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a close Maduro ally, joined other foreign leaders on July 31 in urging him to release detailed vote counts.

“The serious doubts that have arisen around the Venezuelan electoral process can lead its people to a deep violent polarization with serious consequences of permanent division,” Mr. Petro said on the social platform X.

“I invite the Venezuelan government to allow the elections to end in peace, allowing a transparent vote count, with the counting of votes, and with the supervision of all the political forces of its country and professional international supervision,” he added.

Mr. Petro proposed that Mr. Maduro’s government and the opposition reach an agreement “that allows for the maximum respect of the (political) force that has lost the elections.” The agreement, he said, could be submitted to the United Nations Security Council.

His comments came a day after another ally, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, along with U.S. President Joe Biden, called for the “immediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data at the polling station level.”

Brazil’s Presidential office refused to comment on whether an audit by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice would amount to an independent verification. Instead, it pointed to a Monday statement from the Ministry for Foreign Relations that said the government awaits “the publication by the National Electoral Council of data broken down by polling station, an indispensable step for the transparency, credibility, and legitimacy of the election result.”

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday that “the more transparency there is, the greater his chance of having peace to govern Venezuela.”

The Organization of American States convened for an extraordinary session on July 31, but members were unable to reach a consensus on a resolution to pressure Venezuelan authorities to “immediately” publish the granular results and verify them in the presence of international observers. Seventeen nations voted in favor of the resolution, one short of the threshold required for passage. Eleven abstained, and five were absent.

According to Machado, the opposition leader, the vote tallies show González received roughly 6.2 million votes compared with 2.7 million for Mr. Maduro. That is widely different from the electoral council’s report that Mr. Maduro received 5.1 million votes, against more than 4.4 million for González.

The Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal said 11 people, including two minors, were killed in election-related unrest.

Mr. Maduro’s closest ruling party allies quickly came to his defense. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez — his chief negotiator in dialogues with the U.S. and the opposition — insisted Mr. Maduro was the indisputable winner and called his opponents violent fascists. He called for Machado and González to be arrested.

Ms. Machado and Mr. González urged their supporters to remain calm.

“I ask Venezuelans to continue in peace, demanding that the result be respected and the tally sheets be published,” Mr. González said on X. “This victory, which belongs to all of us, will unite us and reconcile us as a nation.”