Venezuela plunged into protests after the official results of the latest presidential elections were announced. Due to Venezuelan authorities, the winner of the elections is Nicolás Maduro with 51% of the vote against 44% of the vote of his main opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. However, the opposition states that Gonzalez has received more than 70% of the vote and is an actual winner of the election. Majority of the Latin America countries did not recognize the elections, with the exception of Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua and several Islands of the Gulf of Mexico. To the countries, which did not accept the election results joined the US, Canada, the EU, Australia and Japan, while Russia, China, major part of the Middle East countries have recognized Nicolás Maduro as the winner.
The news about Maduro to be re-elected for the third term caused massive protests on the streets of Caracas. More than 700 people were detained, 16 killed and an important opposition figure was allegedly kidnapped during the demonstration. Even though more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since Nicolás Maduro became president in 2013, the number of people leaving the country is increasing day-by-day.
Nicolás Maduro: from the early career to nowadays
Nicolás Maduro, before coming to politics, worked as a bus driver, later becoming a trade union leader representing other bus drivers of Caracas. In 1980s Maduro moved to Cuba with the representatives of other leftist groups of South America joining the Union of Young Communists, instructed by the main member of the Communist Party of Cuba, Pedro Miret Prieto, who was a close associate of Fidel Castro. Later Maduro was serving as a “mole” (a spy) working on Cuba’s Intelligence Directorate to approach Hugo Chávez. At that time Chávez was experiencing a rise in his military and political career. He won the 1998 presidential elections with the support of Venezuelan Fifth Republic Movement, the organization, in which Nicolás Maduro was playing a pre-eminent role. The same year Nicolás Maduro was elected as a member of Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies and in the year 2000 of the National Assembly. During the times of Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro was serving as a Minister of Foreign Affairs despite his inability to speak any foreign language. Later, in the year 2012, he was elected as a Vice President of Venezuela directly by Hugo Chávez to succeed him as the president has been suffering from cancer. As it was expected, Hugo Chávez died a year later, and Nicolás Maduro took the responsibilities of interim president immediately after that.
Despite the Constitution regulations to hold the presidential elections within 30 days from the death of the former president, Maduro continued to serve as an interim president thereby violating several articles of Venezuelan Constitution. A month later, during the unfair voting process he officially defeated his main opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles, becoming the 46th President of Venezuela. Internationally, Nicolás Maduro was recognized as an illegitimate president while continuing his term in office.
Right after assuming the office, Maduro started to implement into life the “ideas” of his communistic past in Cuba. He created the Vice Ministery of Supreme Happiness to coordinate social programs and Ministry of State for the New Peace Frontier to adopt and evaluate policies in line with the country’s constitution and laws. The economy started to suffer right after Maduro implemented his extensive social spending programs without sufficient economic diversification, what led to a series of budget deficits. When the oil revenues started to fall, the new government simply started to print more money, what resulted in hyperinflation. In the year 2019 inflation reached its record point with 345,000%[1], becoming one of the highest in the world. The foreign direct investment rate has started to fall from the beginning of 2000s, especially during Maduro’s term in office. Migration rate to Venezuela has been negative, reaching its highest rate -45,48%[2] in 2018. Widespread corruption by the authorities has worsened the country’s internal situation. Maduro’s government has been committing one of the worst human rights violations due to the Amnesty International report. It has been persecuting opposition representatives and conducting more than 8,000 extrajudicial executions in the years 2015-2017. Those who were able to flee the country, did it right away, those who did not- stayed.
Maduro’s government actions provoked several Western states to take measures by imposing sanctions on Venezuela, including economic sanctions on individuals and companies in the petroleum, gold, mining, and banking industries. The sanctions hit Venezuelan economy very hard, which functioned mainly on the export of petroleum, what contributed to the rise in inflation.
Governmental corruption, skyrocketing inflation and international sanctions caused shortages of food stemples and basic necessities in Venezuela. The number of people living under the poverty line has been rising, reaching 94%[3] in the year 2021. People have been seeking a change and the latest elections have been giving some hope for a better future.
The “Democratic Unitary Platform” and Nicolás Maduro main opponent
Nicolás Maduro’s opponent on the presidential elections was the main figure in whom Venezuelans had lots of faith.
Edmundo González has been serving as a Venezuelan ambassador to Argentina and Algeria and as a main editor of “El Nacional”. Graduating from the University of Venezuela with the degree in international studies, Edmundo González went to the United States in order to complete a Master of Arts in international relations from the American University in 1981. After finishing his studies, González began a diplomatic career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela. In 1978 he has been promoted to the post of Ambassador to the United States. From 1991 to 1993, Edmundo González has been serving as the Venezuelan Ambassador to Algeria and from 1994 to 1999 as the Director General of International Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later he was an Ambassador to Argentina and a representative of an opposition political alliance “Democratic Unity Roundtable”. In the year 2020, Edmundo González became the leader of the leftist political alliance the “Democratic Unitary Platform”, an association that stands for the liberal democracy and the end of “Chavismo” regime. As the president of the alliance, González stated that his goal as the presidential candidate is to “bring Venezuelans together (and) to return the political exiles” followed by “the recovery of the economy and of democracy”.
Edmundo González stepped into the role of the leader of the opposition and put his name of the list of presidential candidates after the highly popular María Corino Machado, the former member of the National Assembly, has been barred from running, following allegations she didn’t include some food vouchers on her asset declaration.
Even though, Venezuelans had great expectations from this presidential election, due to the official results, Nicolás Maduro has won the majority of the votes and will stay in his residential chair for one more term. This is not the first time that Venezuelan government has been accused of rigging votes. Maduro’s administration controls almost all state institutions, including the National Electoral Council, which was accused of manipulating the 2017 turnout by the software company that provided the voting technology. The probability of CNE to do it for the second time is very high as this was done previously and if the results were in real favor of Maduro, it would not have caused mass protests in Caracas, where hundreds of people marched through the streets calling for “liberty!” …
The International Monitoring Group “Carter Center” stated officially that Venezuela’s election violated the country’s own laws and was undemocratic. Even though, independent democratic organizations are trying to make a change, in the Venezuelan system, where autocratic government has been seen more than democratic it is hard to make a change without external support. Nicolás Maduro regime will be alive till the leader is living and breathing and can transmit his power to his successor the way Hugo Chávez did before his death. For that reason, the future of Venezuela does not portend a change for the better, at least for now…
[1] Venezuela Inflation Rate (tradingeconomics.com)
[2] Migration rate in Venezuela 2027 | Statista
[3] Population in poverty in Venezuela by gender 2021 | Statista
