Fascism in the land of Bolívar and Chávez will not pass, warns the virtual winner // Opposition leader Corina Machado does not recognize the result // The US is concerned about this victory does not reflect the will of the people
▲ President Nicolás Maduro celebrates with supporters yesterday in Caracas. He will take office on January 10, 2025 for a new term that will last until 2031.Afp Photo
Prensa Latina, AFP, AP and Europa Press
The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, July 29, 2024, p. 25
Caracas. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro won a third term in office in yesterday’s presidential election, obtaining 51.2 percent of the votes, compared to 44.2 percent for the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced today, after 80 percent of the votes were counted. It said that this is a strong and irreversible trend and pointed out that the participation was 51 percent.
Elvis Amoroso, head of the CNE, denounced in the first minutes of this Monday that the data transmission system was the target of a assaultwhich asked the prosecutor’s office to investigate.
Opposition member María Corina Machado, unaware of the official data, proclaimed González President elect and without providing evidence, he claimed that the candidate of the Unitary Platform alliance won with 70 percent of the votes, and Maduro obtained 30 percent, according to more than 40 percent of the minutes they have in their possession. He added that they won in all the states.
In a much shorter speech, Gonzalez said: Our message of reconciliation and peace remains valid. Our struggle continues. We will not rest until the will of the people of Venezuela is respected..
Speaking from Tokyo, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: We are seriously concerned that the announced result does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.while Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chavez claimed, without evidence, that the election was fraudulentand the Peruvian government, headed by President de facto, Dina Boluarte announced that she will not recognize Maduro’s victory and called her ambassador in Caracas for consultations.
Before the results were announced, the far-right Javier Milei stated on his X account that Argentina will not recognize a government led by Maduro, saying that The data announce a crushing victory for the opposition.
His Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric, stated that the CNE figures They are hard to believeand threatened: We will not recognize results that are not verifiable..
Maduro, who has been in power for 11 years after winning the presidency in elections held after the death of Hugo Chavez, told a crowd gathered in front of Miraflores Palace that the result was “the triumph of the dignity of the Venezuelan people. They could not overcome the sanctions. They could not overcome the threats. They will never be able to overcome the dignity of the Venezuelan people. Fascism in the land of Bolivar and Chavez will not pass, neither today nor ever!”
Congratulations from Raul Castro
Former Cuban President Raúl Castro called Maduro to congratulate him.
After recalling that yesterday was the 70th anniversary of Chávez’s birth, he harangued: It’s your victory, long live Chavez.
He asked respect for the popular willand stressed that It is not the first time that they have tried to violate the peace of the republic. highlighting that We must see which country in the world, after receiving 930 criminal sanctions, after having suffered what we have suffered, calls for elections..
He referred to the fact that there was a campaign on all social networks to favor demons and demonesses and, like the CNE, denounced a “hacking “massive” to the data transmission system, because The demons did not want that the official results giving him the victory be released.
He said, without specifying: We already know which country it comes from that hacking.
Referring to allegations of fraud made by the opposition even before the election day, he said: This is not the first time that he has denounced fraud, I have already seen this film several times. He is from the extreme right. They tried to prevent the results from being disclosed.but We will not allow a spiral of violence.
Responding to the Argentine president, he said: “I tell Milei that you can’t stand me for anything round”You cowardly beast. This people has already said no to savage capitalism and no to fascism… How can you take seriously a fascist who enjoys making the people of Argentina suffer?”
Maduro was playing for his re-election and the continuity of a political project that was started 25 years ago by Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013.
Before the results were known, Foreign Minister Yván Gil posted a government statement: Venezuela denounces and alerts the world about an intervention operation against the electoral process, our right to self-determination and the sovereignty of our country, by a group of foreign governments and powers..
He assured that Officials from Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic, together with a group of far-right hitmen specialized in destabilizing governments in Latin America, such as former presidents (Colombian) Iván Duque, (Argentine) Mauricio Macri, (Colombian) Andrés Pastrana, (Costa Rican) Óscar Arias, as well as Republican U.S. senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, intend to distort what has been expressed this Sunday in peace and with a civic spirit in our country, which is nothing other than the exercise of the people’s right to choose
In reference to the opposition Juan Guaidó, who proclaimed himself legitimate president and had the recognition of the United States and its allies, the Venezuelan government warned: “the same people who recognized a puppet in 2019 intend to impose it today in 2024.
This miserable and desperate operation is destined to fail because Venezuela is a free and sovereign country and will never accept impositions or blackmail, and even less so from foreign entities without morals and legality to attack our rights and our people.he said.
The Minister of Defense, General in Chief Vladimir Padrino López, said that it was an electoral day in perfect order, in perfect peace. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Remigio Ceballos, dismissed the incidents, highlighting that they were minuscule and did not affect the development of the election.