Both Sides Claim Victory in Venezuela

Given that Socialist Nicolas Maduro disqualified two candidates of the opposition coalition, whose proxy candidate ended up being Edmundo Gonzalez, it is somewhat predictable that he claimed victory in Sunday's presidential election there.

Gonzalez, too has claimed victory.

Public officials in the Americas are calling the official results into question amid ... opacity ... about the tally:

With 109% of the votes counted.... Another screen shot shows every minor candidate getting 4.6% of the vote, so this could certainly be on the news agency... Regardless, the election was fixed in mid-2023. (Image from Eli David, via Twitter, the author believes this use of the material to be fair use under U.S. copyright law.)

[Argentinian President Javier Milei] said: "Venezuelans have chosen to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.

"The data announce a crushing victory for the opposition and the world is waiting for him to recognize the defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and death.

...

Neighbour Colombia called for a total count and an independent audit of votes.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric says the results are “hard to believe” and they will not “will not recognise any result that is not verifiable”.

Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves rejected the results outright and said they considered them "fraud".

While Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said they had "many doubts" about the results.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the results were not accurate, while on a visit to Japan.

He said: "We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people."

If one alleged screen capture on Twitter (shown with this post) is to be believed, the Maduro regime was not even especially careful to make the claimed result look plausible. (As if throngs of people would swarm the polls to back a regime that has presided over massive inflation, economic contraction, and misery for over a decade.)

If Venezuela isn't, as one British account claims "on the verge of civil war," it should be, since it seems no longer to have recourse to elections.

That has been apparent ever since Maria Machado was barred from running way back in June of last year.

-- CAV