After more than three decades in the US, I am moving to Spain. It was a decision long in the making, and one that comes not simply out of a love for the country where my parents and grandparents come from, but because I also cannot return to the country of my birth.
Venezuela is being rocked by what some are calling the worst election fraud in Latin American history.
On Monday, Venezuela’s autocratic president, Nicolás Maduro, claimed victory after elections in which the opposition, led by conservative Maria Machado – who the government barred from running – and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, had been widely favored in independent polling. Protestors have taken to the streets, stoking fears of rising civil unrest.
Maduro’s popularity has long been in the dirt, assailed by a failing economy and the iron fist with which his regime controls every sector and every aspect of Venezuelan life that has led to the flight of more than 7 million from a country of under 30 million residents, according to UNHCR estimates. It is the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.
As the nation descends into deeper turmoil many anticipate yet more fleeing the country, fueling a migration crisis that has already rattled nations across the Americas and globally.
Going into Sunday’s elections most polls showed Gonzalez with a solid lead over Maduro, who has ruled Venezuela since the death of his mentor and former president, Hugo Chavez, in 2013. Exit polls the night of the voting showed Gonzales with 70% of the vote. Precinct reports gathered by the opposition and which everyone has access to show Gonzalez with a large and “insurmountable” advantage.
Yet on Monday, Maduro claimed victory, a claim that has been met with outrage by millions of Venezuelans (inside Venezuela and across the large diaspora) and with incredulity by countries across Latin America, including Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru and Uruguay, which are calling on Maduro’s government to provide proof of its electoral win.
On Tuesday, Colombia’s president, left-leaning Gustavo Petro joined in those calls. Colombia is home to the largest population of Venezuelan refugees in Latin America. Chile’s left-wing president Gabriel Boric issued a strong condemnation citing Maduro’s “intolerance of dissent, essential in a democracy” and called for transparency, calling on “principles” to be upheld.
Other left-wing governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia have voiced support for Maduro.
Proof of his claims to victory could come by way of paper trails generated by Venezuela’s Smartmatic voting machines, which produce paper tallies of every vote cast at every precinct across the country. On Monday night, Machado and Gonzalez told reporters they had gathered enough of the tallies to prove their win.
So far, the administration has rejected calls to release the official tallies, fueling the accusations of fraud that are growing in intensity, accusations bolstered by the government’s decision to block international election observers.
The Carter Center, meanwhile, which was allowed to observe voting pulled its staff out of the country. In its report, released Tuesday night, the center stated flatly that the elections “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic.”
Amid the standoff the situation continues to deteriorate. Yet unlike during protests in 2018 and earlier, in 2014, those taking to the streets, tearing down Maduro campaign posters and knocking over statues of the once-beloved Bolivarian revolutionary Chavez (more than a dozen at last count) aren’t middle class students but rather residents of the many low-income barrios that have long been bastions of support for Chavez and his movement.
This time, it is the Chavistas who are calling for change.
I have a friend who lives in Caracas and who shared video of the city the night after the elections. Middle class neighborhoods stood peaceful, even tranquil, as other parts of the city erupted in protest, with crowds amassing to call for an end to the Maduro regime. By Tuesday large concentrations of Venezuelans had gathered in the east of Caracas, where the more affluent population lives, even as protests intensified in some of the more working-class areas.
Foro Penal, a human rights NGO, reports 429 verified arrests. The Washington Post reports 16 deaths so far. The Organization of American States (OEA), which for years supported past Venezuelan elections under the Chavez government, issued its strongest statement to date, calling the elections “an aberrant manipulation.”
I won’t go into the details of Venezuela’s decline over these last two plus decades. Suffice it to say that a nation that was once the idol of Latin America, a liberal democracy where – despite its imperfections – people flocked for opportunity, or to escape the poverty or violence in their own countries, has descended into a shadow of its own self, where institutions, even its once-famed oil industry, have become mired in corruption and mismanagement. This has happened progressively over the years.
A country where refugees once sought safety is now one of the world’s main sources of refugees abroad.
Of course, Maduro is pointing the finger, claiming that outside forces are behind this latest conflagration. It is the US, it is politicians like Republican Marco Rubio, an outspoken critic of Venezuela’s regime, it is the right in Latin America, or a cyber-attack planned and orchestrated by the opposition.
The Venezuelan people are clearly tired of these old tropes, and yet Maduro remains, clinging to power.
Perhaps one of the strongest voices of condemnation to come out of Latin America to date is that of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, a stalwart of the left and a one-time ally of Hugo Chavez. “When you lose, you leave,” he warned before the elections in Venezuela.
It remains to be seen whether Maduro will heed that advice as Venezuela, a country I once called home, slides into further isolation and chaos.
EMS Editor Pilar Marrero was born and raised in Venezuela and is a veteran of Spanish language media in the U.S. where she spent close to 30 years reporting for La Opinión in Los Angeles.
