No good options for Venezuelans as Maduro declared victor

Venezuela’s electoral body has declared Nicolás Maduro winner of Sunday’s presidential elections, but the opposition and international leaders cried foul and said they wouldn’t recognise his victory, which threatens a new exodus from the Latin American nation.

By Monday morning, when 80% of the votes had been tallied, Maduro had garnered 51% of the votes compared to 44% for opposition candidate Edmundo González, giving him an unassailable lead, according to the National Electoral Council (NEC).

The opposition, led by María Corina Machado – who Maduro had barred from running amid a series of repressive measures ahead of the election – disputed the results, calling them “impossible” and claiming the opposition had won by a landslide with over 70% of the votes.

“Believe me, what is happening in our country is a huge social movement that will not stop,” Machado said. “We are a civic, peaceful movement, and that's how we will keep working until we make the truth prevail, and it will prevail.”

González said the opposition wouldn’t rest until the will of the people was respected.

The contested result also sparked angry reactions from foreign countries, with Chile's president, for example, refusing to recognise Maduro as the victor.

“We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“The people of Venezuela voted on the future of their country peacefully and in large numbers,” the EU said. “Their will must be respected. Ensuring full transparency in the electoral process, including detailed counting of votes and access to voting records at polling stations, is vital."

Maduro, in turn, accused foreign countries of trying to influence the outcome of the vote. “This is not the first time that they have tried to violate the peace of the republic,” he told supporters while celebrating his win.

With opinion polls suggesting a clear victory for Gonzalez, many Venezuelans had been hoping for a fresh start after a decade of economic freefall, repression, and a burgeoning humanitarian crisis marked by rising hunger and a broken healthcare system.

Several Venezuelans told The New Humanitarian in the run-up to the election that they would consider leaving the country should Maduro remain in power, but that comes with its own set of challenges.

Nearly eight million Venezuelans — one in four of the population — have already left, and may of them are faced with shrinking work opportunities and increasing xenophobia in South America. More and more are now taking dangerous routes to try to reach the United States.

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