Senior Reporter
dareece.polo@guardian.co.tt
Protests over the outcome of Venezuela’s election rocked the Bolivarian Republic’s capital yesterday, as thousands took to the streets of Caracas to rebel. Following the closure of polls late on Sunday, both President Nicolás Maduro and opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González claimed victory with 80 per cent of the votes tallied.
However, according to preliminary results from the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, Maduro won a third six-year term with 51 per cent of the votes. In comparison, González amassed 44 per cent of the ballots cast. There were eight other candidates in the contest.
While some Venezuelans took to the streets chanting “libertad,” which means freedom in Spanish, others stayed indoors and staged a cacerolazo—a form of popular protest in Latin America involving a group of people making noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils.
Venezuela’s cacerolazo echoed outside their embassy in T&T’s capital, Port-of-Spain, with a one-man protest by 28-year-old Giovanni Alfonzo. Alfonzo stood outside the embassy around midday, beating a pot while demanding the freedom of his countrymen.
His demonstration took place while opposition observers were inside the Venezuelan Embassy to witness the counting of ballots.
The consensus was that the Venezuelan government had “rigged” the polls.
Outside, Alfonzo felt slighted, claiming he was unaware of the election and therefore not allowed to vote.
“Venezuela wants freedom, people. Venezuela, you are not alone!
“Venezuela is fed-up with the same thing all the time. We want freedom! Freedom! It’s the same thing over and over,” he shouted.
Alfonzo was not among the 350 eligible voters in T&T, and he received no sympathy for it.
An observer for the opposition, Sofia Figueroa-Leon, minced no words when she criticised those who failed to ensure they could exercise their civic duty.
“You have to register yourself at the embassy and with the National Electoral Council of Venezuela in order to be eligible to vote. If we are not looking after our own benefit, nobody’s going to look after it for us. So at this point, I guess if we didn’t register, if we didn’t change our address, what we crying now for? It was our responsibility to do that,” she said to a quiet Alfonzo.
According to Figueroa-Leon, 122 people voted at the Embassy on Sunday. There were ten votes in favour of Maduro, while González received the remaining 112.
With these results, T&T’s government received a stern warning from opposition observer Suleidy Sosa.
“I hope everybody out there who supports the dictatorial government of Maduro is ready to receive more hungry Venezuelans in massive,” she said.
Despite their initial concerns about the results, the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) issued a statement yesterday, affirming that its observers could confirm the fairness and freedom of the process. MSJ leader David Abdulah mentioned that there were numerous measures in place to prevent voter fraud. He also urged all progressive individuals and Caricom to denounce what he perceived as an effort by the United States and its allies to undermine the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.
“The MSJ unreservedly condemns this right-wing agenda, which is underpinned by the 200-year-old Munroe Doctrine, which claims to give the US imperial control over this hemisphere.
“The MSJ calls on all progressive people and organisations to reject this attempt by the US and its allies to subvert the democratic will of the Venezuelan people, freely expressed in yesterday’s (Sunday’s) election,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the United States has expressed concern over the results and urged the international community to unite in rejecting “another day of illegitimate rule by Maduro.”
Citing the Carter Centre (a US NGO founded by former US President Jimmy Carter that observed the election), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ben Cardin called on officials to immediately improve access to information concerning the election results.
More than 12 million Venezuelans, or some 59 per cent of the eligible electorate, went to the polls over the weekend. Over 21 million were registered to vote, but the departure of over 7.7 million people due to the prolonged crisis reduced the number to about 17 million.