Following Venezuela’s controversial presidential elections on July 28, the country remains in turmoil as political repression and crackdowns on dissent continue. Since the disputed elections, which both Nicolas Maduro and opponent Edmundo González claimed victory in, the opposition said it had proof that it had won the elections and published voting tallies online showing that Maduro lost by a landslide. Though the South American president has rejected the opposition’s claims, the government has yet to release official voting tallies showing his win. On Thursday, August 22, Venezuela’s Supreme Court backed Maduro’s claims that he won last month’s presidential elections and said that the tallies published online showing his loss were forged.
The country’s high court, which is packed with Maduro loyalists, has almost never ruled against the government. The court’s ruling, read Thursday in an event attended by foreign diplomats and senior officials, came in response to a request by Maduro to review vote totals showing he won by more than 1 million votes and is Maduro’s latest attempt to stave off international criticism.
This decision comes just days before Venezuelan electoral official Juan Carlos Delpino, one of the five members of the CNE (the National Electoral Council), denounced a “grave lack of transparency” in a letter published on social media on Monday, August 26. In his statement, Delpino cited several irregularities before and on the day of the July 28 elections and explained his decision to not attend the midnight press conference where CNE President Elvis Amoroso, a long-time Maduro loyalist, announced his win in protest.
“I deeply regret that the results don’t serve the Venezuelan people, that they don’t help resolve our differences or promote national unity but instead fuel doubts in the majority of Venezuelans and the international community,” Delpino wrote in his statement on X.
The opposition, led by powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, has since doubled down on its claims of a fraudulent election and referenced the copies of voting tallies it collected from 80 percent of the 30,000 polling booths in the country showing that González clearly triumphed. The official tally sheets, called “las actas,” printed by each voting machine carry an almost impossible to replicate QR code that allows for anyone to verify the results. González responded to the court’s decision in a video posted on Instagram:
“An attempt to judicialize the results doesn’t change the truth: we won overwhelmingly and we have the voting records to prove it.”
The former diplomat and Machado, who has been González’s chief backer, have gone into hiding since the election after multiple threats of arrest from Maduro. Venezuelan security forces have also massively cracked down on dissent and demonstrations around the country, rounding up over 2,000 people, with at least 120 of them being minors, and killing at least 24. Amnesty International told BBC that they had “well-founded reasons to believe [the detained people’s] lives and integrity are at risk.”
Numerous foreign governments including the U.S. and most Latin American countries have expressed concern over the election results and categorically rejected Maduro’s alleged win. In a joint statement published on Friday, August 23, the governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and the U.S. called for an “impartial and independent audit” of the vote and voiced “profound concern” over human rights violations committed during Maduro’s post-election crackdown.
“We urge for the respect of democratic principles, as well as the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Venezuelans, particularly the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression. We are concerned that this reality currently does not exist in Venezuela,” the statement reads. “We urgently call on Venezuelan authorities to end the violence and release all those who have been detained, including opposition representatives.”
