Antidotes to Venezuela’s election lies

Across Latin America, a popular demand for honesty and equality is compelling leaders to wield truth in defense of democracy.

The Monitor's View

Back in August, a few weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory in a bid for reelection, his critics stirred a global outcry. Opposition leaders posted polling station results on social media suggesting the unpopular autocrat had lost in a drubbing. In cities around the world and within the South American country itself, people marched.

They called it the “Great Protest for the Truth.”

That push for election integrity received new nudges this week. On Tuesday, the Biden administration recognized Venezuela’s main opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, as “president-elect.” Simultaneously, in neighboring Colombia, President Gustavo Petro called the July 28 election “a mistake.” He had already declared the vote not “free.”

Those gestures follow recognition by the European Parliament in September of Mr. González “as the country’s legitimate and democratically elected president.” Several international election observer missions, including The Carter Center, have supported that verdict.

Venezuela has been here before. Five years ago, another opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, claimed victory. Fifty-seven countries ultimately recognized him as interim president. That failed to force change. Yet this time may be different.

Many of Venezuela’s closest regional allies have rejected Mr. Maduro’s claims and are demanding publication of ballot tallies. In September, a federal court in Argentina ordered the arrest of Mr. Maduro and several close associates for crimes against humanity. In Chile, President Gabriel Boric condemned Venezuela’s Supreme Court, packed with Maduro loyalists, and accused it of “consolidating the fraud.”

The force behind this shift may be coming from ordinary citizens. Across the region, Latin Americans have toppled one incumbent government after another, demanding honesty and equality.

“Latin America may be at a crossroads,” noted David Recondo, editor of an annual regional survey conducted by the Center for International Studies at Science Po, a French university. “There is a lot of dissatisfaction with the governing elites and the ruling classes, which are seen as corrupt and inefficient.” High voter turnout, he said in an interview on the center’s website in March, reflects popular demands for “respect for the results of the ballot box and fundamental rights.”

Recognition of his apparent victory by the United States and Europe may not be enough to put Mr. González, who has fled to Spain, in power in January when Mr. Maduro’s current term ends. The autocrat still has strong backing from China, Russia, Iran, and a handful of regional tyrants. But sweeping postelection crackdowns against his critics show that Mr. Maduro may be feeling his isolation. “He desperately needs international recognition and legitimacy,” Moisés Naím, a Venezuelan former trade minister, told The Guardian.

The country’s charismatic opposition leader, María Corina Machado, senses an opening. Banned by Mr. Maduro from running in the election, she rallied support behind Mr. González. She has now gone underground. Undaunted in her quest to restore democracy, she wields a powerful tool.

“I am willing to do what has to be done,” she told The New York Times this week from an undisclosed location, “for as long as it takes to assert the truth and popular sovereignty.”