CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was officially declared the winner of his country’s disputed presidential election on Monday.
The National Electoral Council, loyal to Maduro’s ruling party, declared his victory, giving him a third six-year term at the head of an economy recovering from collapse and a population clamoring for change. Defense, Communications, Technology Ministers and Speaker of the National Assembly were present and appreciated.
“We have never been motivated by hatred. On the contrary, we have always been victims of the powerful,” Maduro said in a nationally televised ceremony. “An attempt is being made to impose a coup d’état of a fascist and counter-revolutionary nature in Venezuela.”
Residents protest by banging pots, the day after presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Hernandez)
“We already know this movie, at this point, there will be no weakness,” he added, adding that Venezuela’s “law will be respected.”
There was no immediate comment from the opposition, which has vowed to protect its vote. After that, the opposition leaders are planning to hold a press conference.
Within hours, a few thousand Venezuelans took to the streets near Caracas’ largest impoverished neighborhood to protest Maduro’s claims.
In the Pietare neighborhood, people began marching in chants against Maduro, and some masked youths tore down his campaign posters hung from lampposts. Heavily armed security forces stood a few blocks away from the peaceful protest.
“It’s going to fall. going to fall This government will fall!” some protesters shouted as they walked by.
People on rooftops banged pots and waved Venezuelan flags in a show of support. Some protesters tried to block freeways, including the one connecting the capital to the port city, home to the country’s main international airport.
Officials delayed the release after announcing detailed vote counts for Sunday’s election Maduro He was the winner with 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for retired ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez. Competing claims set a high-stakes position.
The Venezuelan people and the whole world know what happened. Gonzalez said. But he and his allies urged supporters to remain calm and called on the government to avoid provoking conflict.
Election officials cast their ballots after the close of polls for the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Many foreign governments, including the United States and the European Union, have stopped recognizing the election results.
After failing to oust Maduro during three rounds of protests since 2014, the opposition has put its faith in the ballot box. The elections were the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting hopes that Venezuela could avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of one-party rule.
The country sits on the world’s largest oil reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But after Maduro took over, it plunged into a free fall marked by plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages of basic goods and 130,000% high inflation.
to us Oil barriers Attempts to force Maduro from power after his 2018 re-election were condemned by dozens of countries as illegal. But the sanctions accelerated the exodus of some 7.7 million Venezuelans who fled their crisis-hit country.
The opposition’s call for peace partly reflected protest fatigue among voters, who polls show are in no rush to take to the streets and uplift their lives as they did in the past.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez hold a press conference after election officials announced President Nicolás Maduro’s victory in the presidential election, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Voters He cast his vote since Saturday eveningIt will boost opposition confidence and break Maduro’s grip on power.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, with his wife Celia Flores, arrives for the National Electoral Council (CNE) certification ceremony of his victory in the presidential election, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the CNE in Caracas, Venezuela. )
The official results shocked many who celebrated online and outside some polling stations in what they believed was a landslide victory for Gonzalez.
“I’m very happy,” said Merling Fernandez, a 31-year-old bank employee, a representative for the opposition campaign, leaving a polling station in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas to show Gonzalez more results. Maduro’s vote tally doubles. Dozens of bystanders unexpectedly sang the national anthem.
“This is the road to a new Venezuela,” said Fernandez, choking back tears. “We are all tired of this yoke.”
More than 50 countries will go to the polls in 2024
Gabriel Boric, Chile’s leftist leader, called the results “hard to believe,” while US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington had “serious concerns” that the reported numbers did not reflect the actual vote or the will of the people.
The US-based Carter Center has called on Venezuelan authorities to immediately release the number of 30,000 private voting machines. The center in Atlanta sent a small team to Venezuela for the election.
Leader of Opposition Maria Corina Machado He said Gonzalez’s margin of victory was “extremely high” based on the number of delegates the campaign received from about 40% of the ballots cast.
National Guardsmen work to disperse protesters the day after presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Officials postponed releasing results from 30,000 polling stations across the country, promising to do so “in the coming hours”. Delay hampers efforts to verify results.
Gonzalez is the least liked of the anti-standard bearers. The 74-year-old was largely unknown until his last-minute stand in April for opposition powerhouse Machado, who has been barred from running for office for 15 years by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Court.
The delay in announcing the winner — which came six hours after voting closed — pointed to a deep debate within the government about how to proceed after Maduro’s opponents all but emerged victorious in the evening.
Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with the 70th birthday of former president Hugo Chavez, a revered leftist spark who died of cancer in 2013. But Maduro and Venezuela’s United Socialist Party, which controls all branches of government, are more unpopular than ever with many voters who blame his policies for extremely low wages, fueling hunger and crippling the oil industry. Divided families Due to migration.
Grocery store workers wait for their employer to open for business after the presidential election, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Mathias Delacroix)
The president’s pitch in this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and low inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund predicts the economy will grow 4% this year, the fastest in Latin America – after contracting 71% from 2012 to 2020.
But most Venezuelans have seen no improvement in their standard of living. Many earn less than $200 a month, meaning families struggle to afford essentials. Some Second and third jobs. A basket of food to feed a family of four for a month is estimated at $385.
Opposition Done sorting behind a candidate after years of internal party divisions and electoral boycotts that have fueled their ambitions to topple the ruling party.
Defense Minister Patrino Lopez attends a ceremony to certify the victory of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the presidential election at the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024.
A former lawmaker, Machado won the opposition’s October primary with more than 90% of the vote. After he was barred from entering the presidential race, he chose a college professor to replace him on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred him from registering. It was then that Gonzalez, a political newcomer, was elected.
Opposition parties have sought to seize on the widening imbalances stemming from a crisis in which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the US dollar.
González and Machado have focused much of their campaign on the vast expanse of Venezuela, where the economic measures seen in Caracas in recent years have never materialized. They promised a government that would create enough jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad To return home and reuniting with their families.
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Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.
