The opposition, for its part, maintains that it won Sunday’s election, in which Maduro was declared the winner despite allegations of fraud. The USA is demanding in an increasingly harsh tone that the electoral authority make the lists of votes cast public. Maduro has promised to review the election, but the Supreme Court responsible is considered loyal to the government.
Maduro described Machado and González as criminals and cowards. In the days before, leading figures in the ruling socialist party had already called for the two government opponents to be imprisoned. The president blamed the opposition for the violent protests after the election.
Deaths and hundreds of arrests
According to non-governmental organizations from Venezuela, at least eleven people died in the riots. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch wrote on X that it had received reports that there had been as many as 20 deaths so far. According to the Attorney General’s Office, more than 1,000 people have been arrested.
The opposition blames the government for the protests. “Venezuela and the whole world know that violence is the last resort of the Maduro regime,” Machado wrote on Platform X. “After the clear electoral victory that we Venezuelans have won, the regime’s response is murder, kidnapping and persecution. These crimes will not go unpunished.”
Arrest warrant for Maduro demanded
In this context, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, wants to apply to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for an arrest warrant against Maduro. Before the election, he had warned of a bloodbath and civil war in the South American country if he was not re-elected.
It is outrageous that Maduro is now carrying out this bloodbath, said Almagro. There is intent, treachery and cruelty at play. “It is time to press charges and request an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against those primarily responsible, including Maduro,” Almagro wrote on the X platform. The criminal court has been investigating Maduro’s government for years for alleged crimes against humanity.
After the presidential election on Sunday, the pro-government electoral authority officially declared Maduro the winner. The opposition, however, accuses the government of electoral fraud and claims victory for its candidate González. It claims to have access to more than 80 percent of the detailed election results from the individual voting districts, which the National Electoral Council has not yet published. According to this, González is said to have received 67 percent of the votes and Maduro 30 percent.
Many countries doubt the election result
The USA, the EU and a number of Latin American countries also doubt the official election results. Peru even recognized the opposition candidate González as the election winner, whereupon Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with the South American country.
Speaking for the US government, National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby warned: “Our patience and that of the international community is running out.” Time is running out for the Venezuelan electoral authority to publish “complete and detailed data” “so that everyone can see the results.”
Maduro calls in pro-government Supreme Court
Maduro demonstratively requested an investigation into the election from the Supreme Court and announced that the detailed results would soon be published. However, the court is considered loyal to the government and not independent, as the Carter Center, for example, emphasized. The independent US organization had sent election observers to Venezuela and described the vote as undemocratic.
Venezuela has been in a serious political and economic crisis for years, which is also due to mismanagement by the socialist government under Maduro. In the once prosperous country with large oil reserves, more than 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Power outages are a recurring problem, and petrol, gas and medicines are in short supply. More than seven million people – a quarter of the population – have left Venezuela in the past ten years because of poverty and violence.
