It was an evening that seemed to last forever. When on Sunday July 28th the polls closed across Venezuela at 6 pm, many people headed home to be with loved ones awaiting the National Electoral Council (CNE)‘s announcement of the results. Election results in Venezuela were initially to be announced at 9 pm, but when around that time there was still no news, anxieties grew .
When finally, around midnight, the head of the CNE appeared on national television, he declared sitting president Nicolás Maduro the victor, with a close 51 per cent of the votes. Across Caracas, the capital, people cried out in fury. The words “fraud” and “son of a b*tch” were shouted from the rooftops all around our building. Venezuelans had witnessed an outrageous steal.
These presidential elections were like no other witnessed in the South American country’s recent history. After years of boycotting the polls over widespread repression and unfair conditions, the anti-Maduro opposition committed itself to participating once again and delivering a candidate for the presidency.
Against all the odds a retired diplomat called Edmundo Gonzalez was running for the united opposition. He enjoyed the backing of the immensely popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, barred from running herself by the regime. The 74-year-old Gonzalez had a reputation as a slightly dull, shy, pragmatist, but in a country like Venezuela, where bombastically authoritarian and populist politics have been championed by the likes of Maduro for years, Gonzalez became a very appealing alternative.
A rare opportunity for change had presented itself after years of Maduro’s authoritarian rule. Filled with hope and excitement Venezuelans were already lining up at polling stations the night before the vote, wanting to be the first to cast their ballot at 6 AM. “We are here to fight for our freedom,” one Venezuelan mother, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated. “I didn’t sleep for four days out of anxiety, but I have a lot of hope.”
When Maduro was declared the winner on the evening of the election, many refused to believe it. The opposition organised a press conference, where they stated they had the actual results, collected through hundreds of thousands of volunteer electoral witnesses spread throughout the country. Their results showed it was in fact Gonzalez who had won the vote with 67 per cent of the vote, more than double the amount Maduro received (30 per cent). Many countries in the region refused to recognise Maduro’s proclaimed victory.
The day after the elections spontaneous protests erupted all over Venezuela. In Caracas, thousands marched from the east towards the west, in an attempt to reach the presidential palace. “We did everything right; we did everything the legal way” exclaimed one protester “and they still committed fraud. We cannot allow that to happen.” As the crowd marched across one of the capital’s main avenues, the protesters were stopped and pushed back by police and pro-regime gangs known as the “Collectivos”. The regime responded with old-fashioned repression. At least 16 people were reported to have been killed across the country that day.
In the next few days a wave of arrests ensued, over 1,300 people were taken by the authorities across the country. Politicians, journalists and protesters, were picked off the streets by police or taken away at night. Maduro escalated his rhetoric, stating that those who were arrested would be sent to the country’s notorious gang-ridden prisons. In one Caracas neighborhood, X-marks appeared on the front doors of suspected opposition sympathisers. A country filled with hope had turned into what felt like a North Korea on the Caribbean coast.
Amid reports of police randomly checking phones in the streets, many Venezuelans grew almost paranoid. “I am changing my social media accounts to private and removing my pictures” Alejandra (not her real name), a 30-year-old resident of Caracas, told me. “They have looked for me in the past, so I’m not taking the risk. If they catch me and question me it could endanger everyone around me, including you.”
The opposition leadership has gone into hiding but keeps communicating with the public in an attempt to keep the sense of defiance alive. “We always knew that Maduro wouldn’t surrender power easily”, Andrés, a member of the opposition, tells me.
He believes that the fact the opposition has won the vote and been able to show the results is already a massive victory. Quoting from Game of Thrones, a popular show in Venezuela, he says: “Power resides where men believe it resides.” According to Andrés, Maduro’s inability to beat the opposition in free and fair elections is a sign of weakness. His regime is living on borrowed time.
