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The situation in Venezuela is particularly acrimonious at a time when, following the denunciations of the opposition, which accused the Maduro Chavista regime of electoral fraud, the government that has just been “confirmed” (use quotation marks) at the head of the country is bloodily repressing the protests of the Venezuelan people. Protests that continue, undaunted, with the demonstrators demanding that the Maduro regime, which is clearly moving further and further away from a democratic model, publishes the electoral registers: the opponents count many more votes than those declared, while the clear difference between the last available real-time data published, which showed the opposition ahead and winning, and the results declared by the regime, which overturned the pre-announced result, seems disproportionate and unrealistic. The elections in Venezuela, on the other hand, had already begun under the sign of a change much sought by the citizens of South America: the desire to free themselves from a communist dictatorship, one of the few that still exists south of the United States. Thousands of dissidents, imprisoned outside the country and turned back at the border, had tried to reach their homeland on private boats in order to vote.
A situation that in a very short time has become incandescent: Maduro is depriving his own people of the principle of self-determination won by the Western states. Internal and external self-determination, to free themselves from foreign domination and to choose the form of government that best suits their common needs. The reaction of the Western world has been strong, with many countries refusing to recognise Maduro as the new president. The reaction of the United States, which instead declared González Urrutia, a leader of the opposition, as the new president of Venezuela, has been very strong. The condemnation from Europe was also strong: a meeting between the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the European conservatives, resulted in a joint communiqué signed by other EU countries such as Poland, Portugal, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. They all condemned Maduro’s actions, which are tarnishing his already controversial government: the heads of state and government expressed their “grave concern about the situation in Venezuela” and urged the competent authorities to “immediately publish all the voting results in order to ensure the full transparency and integrity of the electoral process”. In fact, the situation should be quite different from the one described by the Chavista government: “The opposition states that it has collected and published more than 80 per cent of the electoral rolls produced at each polling station. This verification is essential in order to recognise the will of the Venezuelan people’. The countries wanted to come to the defence of the Venezuelan people, deprived of fundamental human and civil rights, such as the sacrosanct right to see a man in power expressed through a free and unimpeded vote: “The rights of all Venezuelans,” reads the note circulated, “especially political leaders, must be respected in this process. This is why the various countries must ‘firmly condemn any arrests or threats against them’. So far there have been hundreds of injuries and many deaths, too many deaths for political reasons. Thousands of arrests of dissidents who took to the streets and protested with cries of ‘freedom’. Maria Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela’s anti-Chavista opposition, had decided not to appear in public after the vote for her own safety. But in one of her last appearances, on a float bearing the words ‘Venezuela has won’, she delivered a message of hope to all the demonstrators: ‘We have never been as strong as we are today,’ she told the protesting crowd, ‘the regime has never been so weak. So it is a very complex and delicate issue, but now it is very simple: the voice of the Venezuelan people, their will expressed behind the ballot box, must be listened to: The will of the Venezuelan people”, declared the various European countries, “must be respected, as must their right to protest and assemble peacefully. We will continue – they added – to follow the situation closely with our partners and – they concluded – to support the Venezuelan people’s call for democracy and peace. And the protest is spreading like wildfire, with other movements and demonstrations also taking place in western US and European cities: all under the cry of ‘freedom’, in solidarity with the people of Caracas.
In the same vein, a number of South American countries that have not recognised Maduro as the new Venezuelan president have joined in. Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Panama have all called for the publication of the electoral rolls, which are still missing. But it is in this context that Maduro is seeking international support and legitimacy. In fact, his intention is to open up to the meditation proposed by the presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, although he has not yet set a precise date for the alleged talks. On the other hand, although they too are calling for the publication of the electoral rolls, all three countries are governed by left-wingers close to Maduro himself: President Lula in Brazil, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico and Gustavo Petro in Colombia. It is therefore difficult to imagine any real mediation for peace in the absence of other actors, perhaps of a different political colour from the South American Chavista left: at the very least, the presence of a mediator from a European or American country would be necessary to give credibility to a dialogue that could easily turn into a farce and end in deadlock. Meanwhile, the protests continue, more than two thousand people have been arrested and social networks such as X (formerly Twitter) are being blocked to prevent opponents of the Maduro regime from communicating with their constituents.
Finally, the position of the US, which has so far been Maduro’s toughest international opponent, must be taken into account. After recognising the anti-Chavista opposition leader as president, as mentioned above, Washington is now issuing a kind of ultimatum: Maduro must leave power in exchange for an international amnesty. This was revealed yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the US government has “put everything on the table” for Venezuela: the US Justice Department has indeed issued a series of indictments against Maduro and his men, promising a $15 million reward for anyone who provides information on his arrest. A glimmer of hope for Maduro’s opponents: According to the newspaper Star & Stripes, the dialogue “offers a glimmer of hope for Venezuela’s opposition, which has collected election results showing that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez, defeated Maduro in a landslide in the July 28 elections. It will be interesting to see what happens next in Caracas: Maduro does not seem to have any intention of stepping down and leaving the leadership of Venezuela, as happened in previous attempts at dialogue with the US authorities, which failed last year in Doha. The fact remains that Maduro cannot hide the truth for much longer: it is now clear for all to see that hiding the electoral records is clearly an attempt to avoid announcing his own defeat and conceding the seat he has held since 2013 to his opponent, as normal democratic rules require.