Venezuela is wracked with protests and election uncertainty. Here’s what to know

By Jessie Yeung, Stefano Pozzebon and Tara John, CNN

Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) — Criticism is mounting against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro after deadly protests erupted across the country following its disputed presidential election.

Venezuela’s opposition and multiple Latin American leaders have refused to recognize Maduro’s victory in the July 28 vote, which was announced by the country’s electoral authority – a body stacked with the president’s allies.

At least 11 people have been killed in the protests, according to non-governmental organization Foro Penal, and Venezuelan authorities say that more than 1,000 people have been detained. The Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Wednesday that 77 law enforcement officers had been injured in clashes with protesters and that a National Guard sergeant had been killed on Tuesday.

CNN has not yet been able to verify the death toll and has reached out to the Venezuelan police.

Meanwhile, an important opposition figure was allegedly kidnapped, according to his supporters, while the country’s army, which has long backed Maduro, reaffirmed its support for the strongman.

The election was seen as the most consequential poll in years, with Venezuela’s stalling democracy and hopes of recovering its shattered economy on the line.

Though Maduro had promised free and fair elections, the process was marred with allegations of foul play – with opposition figures arrested, their key leader banned from running, opposition witnesses allegedly denied access to the centralized vote count, and overseas Venezuelans largely unable to vote.

Many young opposition supporters said they would leave the country if Maduro was re-elected, pointing to the devastating collapse of Venezuela’s economy and violent repression under his rule. But an energized opposition movement, which enjoyed strong polling figures prior to the vote, had been seen as the ruling establishment’s toughest challenge in 25 years.

Here’s what you need to know.

Who’s running against who?

Maduro has been in power since the 2013 death of his predecessor Hugo Chávez. If he takes office again, it will be his third consecutive six-year term and the continuation of “Chavismo,” the left-wing populist ideology named after the former leader.

On the other side is a unified opposition movement that overcame their divisions to form a coalition. Its energized campaign stoked hope among a disillusioned populace that was desperate for change, in a country in such dire economic straits that some 8 million Venezuelans have fled overseas.

The opposition candidate, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez, stepped into the role after the highly popular, center-right leader Maria Corina Machado was barred from running, following allegations she didn’t include some food vouchers on her asset declaration.

But many still see Machado, an avowed capitalist, as a driving force behind the opposition, which had promised to restore Venezuela’s democracy and rebuild its once impressive economy if it won.

Who won?

The results are disputed. The National Electoral Council (CNE) officially declared Maduro the winner late Sunday, with 80% of ballots counted. It said Maduro had won 51.2% of the votes, while Gonzalez received 44.2%.

The CNE has yet to issue final vote tallies.

But the opposition has rejected the results, claiming their own tallies showed Gonzalez had won. On Monday, they said they had obtained more than 73% of the tally sheets showing more than 6 million votes for Gonzalez and only 2.7 million for Maduro.

Speaking from the capital Caracas, Gonzalez and Machado said all their tallies had been verified and shared online for the public and global leaders to see – something world leaders and opposition figures have called on the CNE to do.

Maduro pledged to release all voting data in a private conversation Monday with Brazilian foreign policy envoy Celso Amorim, according to a source who was knowledgeable about the conversation.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the only way to end the electoral dispute in Venezuela is to publish the vote tallies. “There is a fight. How do you solve the fight? Publish the tallies,” Lula da Silva said in an interview aired on Brazilian broadcaster Globo.

Lula said Maduro and the opposition must present their results. If there are discrepancies, the opposition should file an appeal and await a legal decision, he said. He also criticized the effects of “external management” from other countries, adding that the international community has the “obligation” to accept the results once the tallies are released.

Losing power could have devastating consequences for Maduro, who is facing drug trafficking and corruption charges in the US and is under investigation for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. If he was to relinquish control without an agreement in place, he could end up in prison.

The vote’s outcome is expected to be felt across the Americas – including the United States – in the form of migration.

What are the allegations of foul play?

Opposition leaders decried alleged irregularities on Sunday as the votes were being processed and counted.

The opposition said its witnesses were denied access to the National Electoral Council (CNE) headquarters as votes were being counted; their presence was supposed to ensure transparency and fairness.

Only a very limited number of election observers were allowed to monitor the vote. These included The Carter Center, which said Tuesday night it could not verify the results declared by the CNE, which “cannot be considered democratic.”

“Venezuela’s electoral process did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any of its stages and violated numerous provisions of its own national laws,” it said.

The United Nations was also present, with a spokesperson saying afterward that UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for “complete transparency” and for the electoral body to “undertake their work independently and without interference to guarantee the free expression of the will of the electorate.”

The opposition also alleged that the CNE had halted data being sent from polling stations to the central body, thus preventing more votes from being processed.

The government has also been accused of rigging votes in the past, which it has denied. Maduro’s government controls almost all state institutions, including the CNE, which was accused in 2017 of manipulating turnout figures by a software company that provided the voting technology. The CNE previously denied the assertion.

CNN reached out to the CNE for comment on Monday. The body has not yet addressed the opposition’s allegations.

How are Venezuelans reacting?

Though Maduro supporters celebrated his win in parts of Caracas, Monday was marked by wider protests by the opposition.

In Caracas, hundreds of people marched through the streets, waving Venezuelan flags and chanting, “Liberty!”

Videos from across the country, from Charallave to Caucagüita, show crowds banging pots — a rattling cacophony so loud it can be heard from far away across an entire city. This Latin American practice is known as “cacerolazo” – a spontaneous, accessible form of protest also used in Chile and Spain.

CNN teams witnessed dozens of national guard soldiers in riot gear repressing the mostly peaceful protests with tear gas and batons.

“We want peace for Venezuela, for our family members,” a protester, who chose not to be identified, told reporting teams on the ground.

Maduro decried the protests on Monday, saying his government “knows how to confront this situation and defeat those who are violent.” He also claimed, without providing evidence, that the majority of the protestors were hate-filled criminals and that their plan was hatched in the US.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said 749 people had been detained in Monday’s protests. Saab rejected the notion that the demonstrations were peaceful, claiming that they resulted in the injuries of 48 military and police officers.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López called the protests an attempted coup d’état and said the armed forces reaffirmed their “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” to Maduro.

Venezuelan opposition party Voluntad Popular said Tuesday that its leader Freddy Superlano has been kidnapped. Several people dressed in black allegedly intercepted the car in which Superlano was traveling, forcibly removed him and put him in a van, according to a video the party published on social media.

CNN is trying to contact the Venezuelan authorities to get their version of this complaint.

A resident of Caracas who did not want to be identified over safety concerns told CNN they witnessed the incident. “Around 9.40 a.m., I heard some trucks and brakes,” he told CNN. “Several hooded individuals with long weapons get out of the gray truck. They start hitting the car windows with their weapons.”

According to the local, two passengers inside the car that was being targeted were then taken. “Everything happened in less than three minutes,” they said.

For Venezuelans this is grimly familiar territory. Previous periods of opposition protests have resulted in harsh crackdowns by the police and military, which have a long history of protecting the Chavismo system, including in 2017 and 2019.

What is the world saying?

Many regional and world leaders have cast doubt on the results, including the US – though some of Venezuela’s partners have stood by Maduro.

“We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people. It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Monday.

The foreign ministers and offices of several European nations, including the United Kingdom and Spain, voiced similar concerns.

The Organization of American States (OAS) said the election results could not be recognized due to a lack of transparency and evidence, in a 23-page report that found the CNE failed to provide details of the ballots processed.

It also said that other factors make it impossible to grant “democratic recognition” to the official results. These include CNE’s resistance to national and international observation, a reluctance to allow witnesses from the opposition to enter voting centers, and a “contradiction between the announced percentages and the citizen verification exercises,” among other things.

The report accused the Maduro government of political persecution of opposition leaders, noting in particular Machado’s disqualification as a candidate.

“The regime of Nicolás Maduro has once again betrayed the Venezuelan people, declaring that it respects the popular will while doing everything possible to manipulate and ignore that will,” the OAS report concluded.

Other Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay refused to recognize the results and had their diplomatic staff in country expelled Monday.

The Maduro government accused the nations of being a “group of right-wing Washington-subordinate governments, openly committed to the most sordid fascist ideological positions.”

Some of Maduro’s close allies, like China, Cuba, Iran and Russia, were quick to congratulate him.

On Tuesday, Venezuela’s main international airport was rammed with travelers attempting to beat the suspension of commercial flights linking the country to Panama and the Dominican Republic. Venezuela’s transport minister said flights were being suspended to those countries over what it considered “interventionist actions of right-wing governments.”

Panama is considered a major transit hub connecting South, Central and North America, including the US.

How did Venezuela get here in the first place?

Once the fifth-largest economy in Latin America, Venezuela has experienced the worst economic collapse of a peacetime country in recent history.

The economic and political crisis brought about by a crash in the price of oil – a key export for Venezuela – combined with chronic corruption and mismanagement at the hands of government officials.

Venezuela is now suffering chronic shortages of vital goods and soaring inflation, while the goods available are too expensive for most people – pushing millions to flee, including thousands who have trekked north to the US’ southern border.

The US and European Union have imposed punishing sanctions on Maduro’s regime for years, which he has blamed for the crisis, saying Venezuela was victim of an “economic war.”

Last year, Maduro had pledged to hold fair and free elections in exchange for sanctions relief, in US-brokered talks. But after Sunday’s elections, the accusations of fraud now cast doubt on whether Venezuela will be able to return to the international stage.

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CNN’s Alejandra Oraa, Caroll Alvarado, Gerardo Lemos, Claudia Rebaza, Flora Charner, Karol Suarez, Abel Alvarado, Mia Alberti, Jennifer Hansler, Ivana Kottasová, Avery Schmitz, Claudia Rebaza, Michael Rios and journalist Mary Triny contributed to this report.