Venezuela is bracing for heightened political tension as opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez has pledged to return to the country just before President Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration on Friday.
The ceremony comes amid ongoing disputes regarding the legitimacy of Maduro’s victory in last year’s election, which the Opposition and international observers claim was won by Gonzalez in July.
On July 28, electoral authorities closely aligned with the ruling Socialist Party declared Nicolás Maduro the winner of the presidential election. However, Venezuela’s opposition released thousands of voting tallies indicating that their candidate Gonzalez, actually secured 67% of the votes, while Maduro garnered only 30%.
Independent observers, including the Carter Center and the Colombian Electoral Mission, verified the opposition’s claims, yet little changed in the political landscape.
In response to the protests ignited by the election results, Maduro’s government arrested over 2,000 individuals in less than a week to suppress dissent.
González paid the price for challenging the 25-year rule of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and went into exile.
Gonzalez has now vowed to disrupt Maduro’s inauguration by returning to Caracas before the ceremony on Friday. Several Latin American leaders, including nine former heads of state, have committed to accompany him.
In retaliation, the Maduro government has banned this group from entering the country.
How Gonzalez plans to execute this remains uncertain, as Maduro maintains tight control over the military, and security has been significantly heightened amid claims of ongoing threats from insurgents and foreign conspiracies.
Maduro has ruled the oil-rich nation for over a decade since the death of his larger-than-life mentor Hugo Chavez, retaining an iron grip on power with the help of police, paramilitaries and the armed forces.
$100,000 bounty on Gonzalez’s head
Maduro intensified the political climate by announcing a $100,000 reward for information leading to the capture of exiled opposition candidate González, who who insists he beat President Maduro at the polls.
The reward was announced on Instagram by the press office of the country’s Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigations Agency.
González fled to Spain in September following Maduro’s declaration of victory in the July 28 election and subsequent crackdown on dissent.
Spain granted González asylum on 20 December after Venezuela announced charges of conspiracy and racketeering against him.
Support for González
Numerous countries, including the US, have raised concerns about the legitimacy of the official election results, with the US recognising González as the rightful president-elect.
In early January, Gonzalez left Spain to rally support in a tour across the Americas and put pressure on Maduro’s government.
Over the weekend, he met with the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay in South America, and on Monday, he met US President Joe Biden, whose government recognised Gonzalez as the legitimate president-elect in November.
“Both leaders agreed there is nothing more essential to the success of democracy than respecting the will of the people, as expressed through a transparent and accountable electoral process, and that Gonzalez Urrutia’s campaign victory should be honored through a peaceful transfer back to democratic rule,” CNN quoted the White House as saying in a statement.
There was also a warning from Washington that Biden would be “closely” following the regime’s response to protests planned on Thursday, the eve of Maduro’s investiture.
“Venezuelans should be allowed to express their political opinions peacefully without fear of reprisal from the military and police,” AFP quoted the White House as saying.
González said he has also been in contact with President-elect Donald Trump’s team but did not expand on their conversations. He declined to comment on remarks from Sen. Bernie Moreno suggesting that Trump planned to negotiate with Maduro.
González said on X he had met in Washington with Trump’s pick for US National Security adviser, Mike Waltz, saying he “assured us that the United States, and the world, will be alert about what happens in our country.”
Gonzalez’s son-in-law goes missing
The already tense political situation escalated this week with the troubling disappearance of Gonzalez’s son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, who went missing on Tuesday while dropping his children off at school in Caracas.
Gonzalez, who announced the news on social media on Tuesday, accused the Maduro government of kidnapping Tudares.
“This morning my son-in-law Rafael Tudares was kidnapped,” Gonzalez wrote.
“Rafael was heading to my grandchildren’s school, ages 7 and 6, in Caracas, to drop them off for the start of classes, and he was intercepted by hooded men dressed in black, who put him in a gold-coloured pickup truck with the license plate AA54E2C and took him away. At this time he is missing,” he added.
The Unitary Platform, a coalition formed to oppose Maduro, issued a statement demanding Tudares’s release — “We demand the immediate release of Rafael Tudares and all political prisoners, who are hostages of a regime that knows it is rejected by the vast majority of Venezuelans who spoke with the force of the vote.”
Political party Primero Justicia, an opposition party of which Gonzalez is not a member, condemned the kidnapping “by officials of (President) Nicolas Maduro’s regime,” without giving evidence.
Security stepped up, fear among people
In recent days, the government has ramped up its show of force ahead of the inauguration, increasing the presence of police and security personnel on the streets while detaining dozens of individuals nationwide, including a former presidential candidate, according to a CNN report, citing human rights advocates.
A climate of fear is evident on social media, highlighted by a recent post from Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency showing a video of a hand knocking on a door in the dead of night — an ominous signal of potential retaliation faced by critics.
Maduro and his allies are “showing they are not going to tolerate any dissent, and people are scared,” Latin American diplomat told CNN, asking to speak anonymously to avoid possible repercussions.
On Tuesday, Maduro deployed the army to the streets to “guarantee the victory of peace.” He also claimed that seven foreign mercenaries, including two US citizens and three Ukrainians, had been arrested for terrorism, though he provided no evidence and asserted that the group would soon confess to their alleged crimes, reported CNN.
Current situation of protests
The Venezuelan opposition parties and their supporters are planning nationwide protests today in a last-ditch effort to pressure President Maduro.
The government has accused the opposition of inciting fascist conspiracies and has warned that it will arrest opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez if he returns to the country.
In the lead-up to the inauguration, several prominent opposition members and activists have already been detained.
Venezuelan opposition parties and NGOs decried the arrests of a prominent press freedom activist and a well-known opposition figure, among others, ahead of planned protests against Friday’s inauguration.
The opposition Popular Will party said on X late on Tuesday that at least 19 people had been detained nationwide in what it termed a “worsening of persecution and repression” by the Maduro government.
Maria Corina Machado, the country’s most popular opposition figure who has been barred from running in 2024, has announced her intention to join the protests on Thursday. This will be her first public appearance since she went into hiding in August.
At 57, Machado has called for peaceful demonstrations, urging protesters to take to the streets and appealing to members of the police and military—who guarded polling stations during the election—to support Gonzalez’s victory.
In response, the government has deployed heavy military presence in Caracas, particularly around the presidential palace, Miraflores. The ruling party is also expected to organize a counter-march.
With inputs from agencies
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Publish date : 2025-01-08 23:43:00
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