Nicolás Maduro has gone on the offensive after suspicions that he stole last Sunday’s presidential election plunged Venezuela into turmoil and diplomatic isolation, blaming the unrest on a far-right conspiracy being spearheaded by “perverse and macabre” political foes.
Addressing foreign journalists at the presidential palace in Caracas – as international condemnation of the allegedly rigged election grew – Venezuela’s authoritarian leader struck a defiant note.
Maduro castigated Edmundo González Urrutia, the presidential rival he claims to have beaten, and his adversary’s key backer, the conservative opposition leader María Corina Machado.
“We’re now facing perhaps … the most criminal attempt to seize power we have seen,” Maduro claimed, blaming this week’s disturbances on González and Machado. “All of this is being directed by a perverse and macabre duo who must take their responsibility,” said Maduro, who has ordered security forces on to the streets and urged citizens to snitch on protesters using a government app.
González and Machado say their campaign secured a landslide amid widespread anger over Venezuela’s economic collapse during the incumbent’s 11-year rule and a migration crisis that has seen 8 million citizens flee abroad. But Maduro has claimed victory – thus far without providing proof – sparking street protests and a wave of international criticism, including from leading members of the Latin American left.
On Tuesday the Carter Center – a pro-democracy group that Maduro’s administration had invited to witness the election and has previously praised – added its voice the chorus of disapproval, claiming the vote could not “be considered democratic”.
“Venezuela’s electoral process did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any of its stages and violated numerous provisions of its own national laws,” the group said, condemning the “complete lack of transparency in announcing the results” by the government-controlled electoral council. The council had a demonstrated “a clear bias in favour of the incumbent” during the electoral process, the group claimed.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the US had “serious concerns about [the] subversions of democratic norms” and reports of violence and casualties involving protesters. “Our patience and that of the international community is running out,” Kirby said.
Brian Nichols, the US assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, urged Maduro and foreign governments to acknowledge González as the winner, telling a meeting of the Organization of American States that the reason Venezuela’s electoral authority had not yet provided detailed results of the vote was either because it did not want to show Gonzalez’s victory or because it needed time to falsify the results.
Colombia’s leftwing president, who has a good relationship with Maduro, recognised there were “serious doubts” over the result.
Maduro rebuffed such questioning on Wednesday during two encounters with journalists.
Speaking in the cavernous atrium of Venezuela’s brutalist supreme court, where Maduro announced he would share election data with officials, the president lambasted what he called a “criminal attack” designed to topple his administration and spark a civil war.
Later, during an encounter with the foreign press in the heavily guarded Miraflores palace, Maduro said he hoped to see González and Machado imprisoned. “These people must be put behind bars,” he said as hundreds of supporters gathered outside.
“If you ask me … what should happen with the cowardly and criminal González and the fascist from the criminal ultra-right … named Machado, I would say as a head of sate that there must be justice,” Maduro added.
Maduro claimed the attempt to remove him from power was part of a global extreme-right movement involving politicians including Argentina’s president Javier Milei, El Salvador’s president Nayid Bukele, Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, the Spanish party Vox and the billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk.
“We are facing a violent, fascist and criminal counter-revolution,” the handpicked successor of former president Hugo Chávez proclaimed, vowing to resist – by force if necessary.
“Venezuela will not fall into the hands of fascists, criminals and imperialists … We want to continue along the path that Chávez traced … But if North American imperialism and the criminal fascists oblige us I will not hesitate to summon the people to a revolution with other characteristics,” he said.
For all his defiance, observers say Maduro’s position remains precarious and Venezuela’s political future deeply uncertain.
“He’s counting on being able to wait this out and people will get tired of demonstrating,” Cynthia Arnson, a distinguished fellow at the Wilson Center thinktank in Washington, told the Associated Press. “The problem is the country is in a death spiral and there’s no chance the economy will be able to recover without the legitimacy that comes from a fair election.”
The streets of Caracas were eerily quiet on Wednesday with many residents deciding to stay at home for fear of further turbulence or repression. Most shops and businesses around the presidential palace were closed and long columns of security forces on motorcycles could be seen sweeping along the city’s largely traffic-free roads.
According to government figures, more than 1,000 people have been detained during the post-election crackdown. The human rights group Foro Penal says 11 people have been killed and 429 arrests confirmed.
Meanwhile, the South American country is becoming more cut off from the world by the day, as international pressure increases. Flights to and from Panama, the Dominican Republic and Peru have all now been suspended by Venezuelan authorities in response to criticism of the election from the governments of those countries.
On Tuesday, Peru became the first country to officially recognise González as Venezuela’s president-elect. But on Wednesday, Maduro vowed that his rival would “never, ever” be able to take power.