Venezuela’s People and Its Socialist Regime Lurch Toward a Clash

President Maduro of Venezuela cut a cake yesterday to celebrate his reelection and the birthday of his political mentor, socialist revolutionary Hugo Chávez Frias. Elsewhere in Venezuela, groups of young people marked 25 years of socialism by pulling down Chávez statues.In one city, two young men on a motorcycle rode slowly down a main street, dragging a bouncing metal head of Chávez. Days before the election, Mr. Maduro had warned of a “fratricidal civil war” if voters did not give him a third 6-year term.Last night at Caracas, his warning seemed prescient. On motorcycles and on foot, rivers of protesters descended from the capital’s hillside shanty towns. Their destination was Miraflores Palace, the beaux-arts focal point of Venezuelan revolutions and coup attempts for the last century.Videos posted online appear to show military snipers firing at protesters. Other videos show an army unit fraternizing with protesters and police shedding their uniforms. Across the country, protesters burned Maduro posters on walls and tires on freeways built during the pre-revolutionary, oil boom years. As of 6 p.m., the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict said it registered 187 protests in 20 of Venezuela’s 23 states.Although crowds of civilian protesters gathered outside army bases imploring the military to act, military discipline and loyalty to Mr. Maduro are expected to hold. The defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, warned Venezuelans against repeating the “terrible situations of 2014, 2017 and 2019.”In those years, Venezuelans took to the streets to protest electoral fraud by the Maduro regime, and hundreds were killed. For now, opposition leaders publicly urge their followers to stay off the streets. Yet the leaders are not backing down. Over the last 24 hours, they claim to have increased possession of vote tallies to 73 percent of the 30,000 voting tables, up from 40 percent.“Our triumph was absolute — we won in all the states of the country,” opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters yesterday. Last spring, after a Maduro-controlled court forced her to step aside, the opposition rallied behind a stand-in candidate, retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia. She said yesterday: “Venezuela has a new president elect — and his name is Edmundo González Urrutia.”Opposition tallies indicate that Mr. González beat the president by a margin of at least two to one. This tracks with a nationwide exit poll of 6,846 voters conducted Sunday by American pollster Edison Research. This poll indicated that the opposition candidate was getting 65 percent of votes and the president 31 percent.On election night, the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council suspended posting results for several hours. Then, just after midnight, without citing polling station tallies, the Council announced that Mr. Maduro eked out a 51-44 victory over Mr. González. Later Monday, attorney general Tarek William Saab blamed the website crash on hackers from North Macedonia.Picking a new foreign “archenemy,” Mr. Maduro charged yesterday in a speech that “Elon [Musk] wants to come to Venezuela with an army and his space rockets and invade it.” Giving some Venezuelans the impression that the official vote numbers were picked out of a hat, Telesur, a Venezuelan state television channel, aired a graphic showing the candidates winning a total of 109 percent of votes.From Caracas, the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which sent observers to Venezuela, called on the electoral council to immediately publish the results of all polling stations. In Washington, Biden Administration officials briefed reporters and left the door open to more sanctions.“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,” an Administration official said, Reuters reported.In Washington, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas, posted on X: “The Venezuelan people have spoken: Nicolás Maduro’s time is up. The United States must stand against any and all efforts by the criminal Chavista regime to steal its way out of today’s clear election results.”Key Latin American nations — Brazil, Colombia and Mexico — say they will withhold recognizing a Maduro victory until the voter station tally sheets are made public and audited. Other countries are more forthright, condemning Sunday’s election as fraudulent.“What we saw yesterday in Venezuela has no other name than fraud,” said El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele. “An ‘election’ where the official result has no relation to reality. Something obvious to anyone.” President Milei of Argentina said: “We don’t recognize fraud. We call on the international community to unite to restore the rule of law in Venezuela.”In response, Venezuela yesterday ordered the withdrawal of its diplomats from seven countries, including Argentina, Chile, and Peru, accusing their governments of “meddling actions and statements.”At the same time, the dictatorship club quickly lined up to congratulate Mr. Maduro on winning an extension of his term to 2031. “Russian-Venezuelan relations have the character of a strategic partnership,” said President Putin. Earlier this month, two Russian Navy ships made a friendly port call in Venezuela. Mr. Putin added: “I would like to confirm our readiness to continue our constructive joint work on topical issues on the bilateral and international agenda. Remember that you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil.”From Beijing, the Communist Chinese government issued a statement: “China congratulates Venezuela for smoothly holding its presidential election and congratulates President Maduro on his successful re-election. China stands ready to enrich our all-weather strategic partnership and better benefit the people of both countries.”From the Caribbean, Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, sent a personalized note to “Nicolás Presidente,” saluting the “great victory.” From Havana, a congratulatory call came from the dean of Latin American political survivors, Raúl Castro. Now 93 years old, Mr. Castro first came to power 65 years ago. He retired three years ago as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Venezuela’s People and Its Socialist Regime Lurch Toward a Clash

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