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Crowds take to Venezuelan streets to protest what they say is president’s attempt to steal election

July 30, 2024

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and REGINA GARCIA CANO

CARACAS, Venezuela — Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Venezuela on Monday to protest what they said was an attempt by President Nicolás Maduro to steal the country’s disputed election a day after the political opposition and the entrenched incumbent both claimed victory.

Shortly after the National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro’s ruling party, announced that he had won a third six-year term, angry protesters began marching through the capital, Caracas, and cities across Venezuela.

WASHINGTON MONITORING: Blinken says US has serious concerns on Venezuela vote results

In the capital, the protests were mostly peaceful, but when dozens of riot gear-clad national police officers blocked the caravan, a brawl broke. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom threw stones and other objects at officers who had stationed themselves on a main avenue of an upper-class district.

Protesters demonstrate against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Protesters on motorcycles demonstrate against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro won reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

People protest the official results declaring President Nicolas Maduro was reelected, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police hurdle a gas canister at protesters demonstrating against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A man carries a protester affected by tear gas thrown by police during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection, the day after the vote, in the Caria neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Police aim at protesters demonstrating against the official election results after electoral authorities certified President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024, the day after the vote. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A protester throws a gas canister back at police during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection, the day after the vote, in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Protesters demonstrating against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection ride through tear gas fired by police the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

A protester steps on a campaign sign of President Nicolas Maduro during a march against hish being declared the winner of the presidential election, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Protesters demonstrate against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner, the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Protesters march against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner, the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. The sign reads in Spanish “Until the end. No dictator.” (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Protesters burn an election campaign poster of President Nicolas Maduro as they demonstrate against the official election results declaring him the winner the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Protesters demonstrate against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents watch protesters face off with National Guards to protest the official results the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro attends a ceremony at the National Electoral Council (CNE) that certifies him as the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents throw objects at National Guards as they protest the official results the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Residents try to block a street to protest the official results the day after the presidential election as National Guards work to remove them in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Defense Minister Padrino Lopez attends the ceremony certifying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as the winner of the presidential election at the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives with his wife Cilia Flores for a ceremony where the National Electoral Council (CNE) certifies that he won the presidential election, at the CNE in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

National Guards work to disperse protesters the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Residents bang pots to protest the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Residents bang pots and pans to protest the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, right, and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez hold a press conference after electoral authorities declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Electoral officials tally votes after polls closed for presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters after electoral authorities declared him the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Supporters of President Nicolas Maduro celebrate after electoral authorities declared him the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters gathered outside the Miraflores presidential palace after electoral authorities declared him the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Supporters of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez gather outside the Andres Bello School voting center, asking for the results, after the polls closed for the presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Electoral officials tally votes after polls closed for presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Supporters of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez gather outside his campaign headquarters after the polls closed for the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Electoral officials tally votes after polls closed for presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Police guard a voting center during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Government supporters, left, face off with opposition backers outside a voting center during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

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The demonstrations followed an election that was among the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting hopes that Venezuela could avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule. The winner was to take control of an economy recovering from collapse and a population desperate for change.

“We have never been moved 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 in Venezuela again of a fascist and counterrevolutionary nature.”

“We already know this movie, and this time, there will be no kind of weakness,” he added, saying that Venezuela’s “law will be respected.”

There was no immediate comment from the opposition, which had vowed to defend its votes. Opposition leaders planned to hold a news conference later in the day.

In the capital’s impoverished Petare neighborhood, people started walking and shouting against Maduro, and some masked young people tore down campaign posters of him hung on lampposts. Heavily armed security forces were standing just a few blocks away from the protest.

“It’s going to fall. It’s going to fall. This government is going fall!” some of the protesters shouted as they walked.

“He has to go. One way or another,” said María Arráez, a 27-year-old hairdresser, as she joined in the demonstration.

As the crowd marched through a different neighborhood, it was cheered on by retirees and office workers who banged on pots and recorded the protest in a show of support. There were some shouts of “freedom” and expletives directed at Maduro.

Elsewhere, some protesters attempted to block freeways, including one that connects the capital with a port city where the country’s main international airport is.

Officials delayed the release of detailed vote tallies from Sunday’s election after proclaiming Maduro the winner with 51% of the vote, compared with 44% for retired diplomat Edmundo González. The competing claims set up a high-stakes standoff.

“Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” González said. But he and his allies asked supporters to remain calm and called on the government to avoid stoking conflict.

Several foreign governments, including the U.S. and the European Union, held off recognizing the election results.

After failing to oust Maduro during three rounds of demonstrations since 2014, the opposition put its faith in the ballot box.

The country sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But after Maduro took the helm, it tumbled into a free fall marked by plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages of basic goods and hyperinflation of 130,000%.

U.S. oil sanctions sought to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection, which dozens of countries condemned as illegitimate. But the sanctions only accelerated the exodus of some 7.7 million Venezuelans who have fled their crisis-stricken nation.

Voters lined up as early as Saturday evening to cast ballots, boosting the opposition’s hopes it was about to break Maduro’s grip on power. The official results came as a shock to many who had celebrated, online and outside a few voting centers, what they believed was a landslide victory for González.

Gabriel Boric, the leftist leader of Chile, called the results “difficult to believe,” while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had “serious concerns” that the announced tally did not reflect the actual votes or the will of the people.

In response to criticism from other governments, Maduro’s foreign affairs ministry announced it would recall its diplomatic personnel from seven countries in the Americas, including Panama, Argentina and Chile. Foreign Minister Yvan Gil asked the governments of those countries to do the same with their personnel in Venezuela.

He did not explain what would happen to the staff members of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, including her campaign manager, who have sheltered for months in the Argentinian embassy in Caracas after authorities issued arrest warrants against them.

Machado said the margin of González’s victory was “overwhelming,” based on tallies the campaign received from representatives stationed at about 40% of ballot boxes.

Authorities postponed releasing the results from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, promising only to do so in the “coming hours.” The delay hampered attempts to verify the results.

González was the unlikeliest of opposition standard bearers. The 74-year-old was unknown until he was tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years.

Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chávez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which controls all branches of government, are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushingly low wages that spurred hunger, crippled the oil industry and separated families due to migration.

The president’s pitch this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4% this year — one of the fastest in Latin America — after shrinking 71% from 2012 to 2020.

But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs. A basket of food staples to feed a family of four for a month costs an estimated $385.

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The opposition managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.

A former lawmaker, Machado swept the opposition’s October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That’s when González, a political newcomer, was chosen.

González and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela’s vast hinterland, where the kind of economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years never materialized. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home and reunite with their families.

Associated Press Writer Fabiola Sánchez contributed to this report.

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Crowds take to Venezuelan streets to protest what they say is president’s attempt to steal election

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