The US has recognised Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela’s disputed election, claiming there is “overwhelming” evidence of Nicolás Maduro’s defeat, as anti-government protesters prepared to return to the streets to demand political change.
Maduro, under whose 11-year presidency Venezuela has taken an increasingly authoritarian tack and been plunged into economic chaos, has claimed victory in last Sunday’s vote, despite a mounting body of evidence suggesting he lost.
On Thursday night, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken rejected the incumbent’s claims and recognized González as Venezuela’s president-elect. Blinken said tally sheets obtained by Venezuela’s opposition indicated that González “received the most votes in this election by an insurmountable margin”.
The US called for “a respectful, peaceful transition in accordance with Venezuelan electoral law and the wishes of the Venezuelan people”.
Maduro has shown no sign of being prepared to concede defeat or relinquish power and has instead launched a major crackdown on political opponents he accuses of trying to launch a violent “counter-revolution” against his rule.
“We have captured 1,200 people – and we are going after another thousand,” he told supporters on Thursday from the balcony of the Miraflores presidential palace in the capital, Caracas.
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Speaking to the foreign media in the same building the previous day, Maduro said he wanted to see González and his most important backer – the opposition leader María Corina Machado – jailed, calling them “perverse and macabre” terrorists.
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal published hours later, Machado – a conservative former lawmaker who has become a political sensation during this year’s presidential campaign – said she feared for her life.
“I could be captured as I write these words,” the 56-year-old politician wrote, vowing nevertheless to fight on. “We won’t rest until we are free.”
Soon after, Machado called on opposition supporters to return to the streets on Saturday morning to intensify their campaign against a president widely blamed for one of the worst economic meltdowns outside a war zone in modern history. Maduro has called his own rally on the same day in an attempt to project strength.
Blinken called Maduro’s threat to arrest his two challengers “an undemocratic attempt to repress political participation and retain power”.
Andrés Izarra, a former Maduro minister who has lived in exile since 2015 after falling out with the president, said he saw no immediate solution to Venezuela’s latest political crisis, which follows a failed 2019 attempt to topple the president and months of anti-government street protests in 2017.
Izarra was convinced Maduro would not voluntarily give up power. He said: “These guys have committed so many crimes – there’s an investigation for crimes against humanity running against them in the international criminal court, the US is after them with bounties of $15m for drug trafficking,” he said. “They know if they lose power they’re going to go to jail … So for them, staying in power is a matter of life and death.”
