It has been a week since Venezuela’s election, which sparked widespread street protests alleging voting fraud. Despite calls for his resignation, President Nicolas Maduro has announced results claiming he won the election.
The unrest has intensified, with growing numbers of citizens demanding that Maduro transfer power to opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia. Protesters and vocal critics are facing escalating repression from the government.
Thousands of individuals speaking out against the election results have been arrested, and the government has escalated its tactics beyond just arrests. Intimidation campaigns and crackdowns have become more severe, as authorities seek to suppress dissent and maintain control amid the ongoing political crisis.
Why is this happening? #VenezuelaLibre
If you have ever studied or spoken about economy, Venezuela was probably brought up, and that is because the Venezuelan economy has been in a terrible turmoil since 2014.
From 1999-2013 Hugo Chavez was the president, when he passed away, Nicolas Maduro, his successor and current president took over. Maduro kept implementing a “socialist revolution”. This revolution, if taken at face value was supposed to reduce poverty, improve society with education and healthcare. In reality none of that happened.
Now, Venezuela has a presidential election every 6 years, and since Maduro got into office in 2014, he hasn’t left.
This year, in the months leading up to the election the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, was very favored to win. Polls in July said he had a 70 percent chance. Voting in the election was already challenging and corrupt as they made it very difficult for Venezuelans that moved out to vote.
Election Day
On the election day, the numbers coming out throughout the day said that it was looking like González Urrutia was going to win. The polls close and a suspicious 6 hours later, the results come out and confirmed that Maduro won. Now it is nearly impossible for the public and even government officials to verify if it was rigged or not.
Now there are reports that the people of Venezuela are being silenced, kidnaped, followed and tortured if they speak out, protest or have done anything to oppose the election “results”.
Photo courtesy of María Corina Machado’s Instagram
