Civilian security and opposition demonstrators engaged in a battle in Caracas, the main city of Venezuela, following disputed elections in which President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner. As many as 20,000 marched in Caracas on Monday regarding the presidential elections that Maduro said gave him a third six-year term.
Newscasts from Getty Images accompanied by films from the streets illustrated policemen in riot gear making arrests at protesters who were drumming cooking pots and burning car tires on the highway. A large banner that read, “Venezuela, I want you to be free” was held by Maduro’s opponents While the National Electoral Council, loyal to Maduro’s ruling party declared the incumbent president as the winner of Sunday’s presidential election garnering slightly over half (51%) of the votes.
Surveys of the voters who cast their ballots independently pointed to an emphatic win for the opposition’s González Urrutia. Chávez’s rival, Venezuelan leader Hugo Raúl González, barred from running, said he won over 70% of the vote with the opposition leader Marina Corina Machado. Machado demanded Maduro admit that the era and a new one was over as his term of 11 years ended and denied the incumbent’s message of the victory as irreversible.
“He needs to accept his defeat,” Machado said to The Guardian in an interview held on Tuesday. “That’s where he has to go in the garage,” she concluded.
In his recent television speech, President Maduro blamed the opposition for creating “political turmoil. “
‘‘We have never had a drop of hatred in our hearts,” Maduro said ‘‘We have won these battles over and over again while we have been on the receiving end of the aggression of the powerful’’, as quoted by The Associated Press. Published on March 30, 2019, there is a statement that reads as follows: an attempt is being made to stage another fascist and counterrevolutionary coup in Venezuela.
US Terming its concerns as ‘Serious’
The U. S. has expressed “deep concern” that this recent election has not well represented the people of Venezuela. The US government through the White House has called on Venezuelan election authorities to release the raw data of the vote.
‘We will reserve our verdict till the entire list is released’, stated John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson. ”Thus, the United States and the entire international community of nations are watching the situation carefully and will respond as necessary. ”
Venezuela, which owns the biggest proven oil reserves has been dealing with a severe and deep political and socio-economic crisis for quite some time now. In the last ten years, more than 7. 7 million people have fled the country in search of a better life which makes the situation the biggest of its kind in Latin America and one of the biggest in the world.
The UN’s refugee organization estimates that around 20 percent of the inhabitants have emigrated since 2014 citing violence, gangs and drug traffickers, hyperinflation, food & medicine scarcities as well as lack of utilities. Such a move has caused furore and attracted global attention especially with Maduro declaring victory in polls that are strongly disputed. It’s essentially the same as any other protest: people call for openness and just voting. It mirrors the international community’s worry about the political stability and the free and fair election in Venezuela as taken by the U. S. government.
Opposition is asking Maduro to recognize electoral fraud that the opposition claimed had been perpetrated against it showing the divide within the country. Other groups have also condemned how the election was held accusing it of having many irregularities and no transparency from independent international observers.
Some of the factors that have worsened the humanitarian situation in the country are political instabilities and economic stresses having affected the oil industry of Venezuela. The country is blessed with large oil reserves, which at one point generated a huge income for the nation, not due to management but mismanagement and the ban on the supply of orders.
The external actors’ reaction will play a vital role in determining the patterns of future development in Venezuela. Demands for calling the referendum on the electoral changes and providing asylum for the Sudanese are rising. As the situation changes, the world focuses on the result, with a desire for the developments to be exclusively due to the people’s choice in Venezuela.
