“Today it is decided whether peace or war will prevail in the country,” said the president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro referring to the presidential elections that are taking place in an atmosphere of great tension, with the main candidates being himself and the candidate for “change” Edmund Gonzales Urutia.
Some 21 million of Venezuela’s 30 million eligible voters are invited to the polls, which will open at 6:00 a.m. local time; 1:00 p.m. Greek time) and close at 6:00 p.m. (1:00 a.m. Monday Greek time), with results expected overnight.
There are 10 candidates, but it is really a showdown between Maduro, 61, who is seeking a third six-year term, and Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old diplomat who hastily replaced the charismatic right-wing opposition leader. Maria Corina Machadosince the latter was excluded from the process.
Some opinion polls show the opposition on track for victory. Observers argue that a hard battle will be fought. Based on its own calculations, the government declares itself confident of victory.
His political heir Hugo Chavezthe late former socialist head of state (elected in 1999, he remained president until his death in 2013), Nicolas Maduro, who depends on the military and is accused of police repression of the opposition, has repeatedly said that he has no intention of handing over power: according to him, chaos would ensue.
“Venezuela’s future for the next 50 years will be decided on July 28“, Maduro said: “Today it is decided whether peace or war will prevail in the country.” He referred to the possibility of “a bloodbath in a civil war that the fascists could cause.”
Statement that caused “fear” in the president of Brazil Lula: the center-left veteran commented that Nicolás Maduro “must understand that when you win you stay,” but “when you lose, you leave.”
Today’s elections “will undoubtedly be the most important democratic expression of the people’s will in recent years,” Gonzalez Urrutia said yesterday, urging voters “to go to their polling stations at the end of the day and discover that the results are clear.”
“There is a movement for change,” he said. Louis Salamancauniversity professor. Under “normal” conditions, the election result will be “extremely big victory for the opposition“, predict.
The oil-producing country, long one of Latin America’s richest, has been bled dry as it remains mired in unprecedented financial crisis.
Because of mismanagement and corruption, says the opposition, or because of US sanctions, which the government complains about, oil production has collapsedfrom more than three million barrels of oil per day to just under 1 million. GDP fell 80% in 10 years, hyperinflation forced authorities to partially dollarize the economy.
Seven million Venezuelan citizens have fled the country. The vast majority of those who remain live in poverty, and health and education systems are crumbling. The government calls “criminal foreclosure” the root of all evil.
The US imposed severe penalties to oust Nicolás Maduro from power after his 2018 re-election, which the dissident opposition called a fraud, organizing protests that were repressed.
The key to political developments will be the attitude he demonstrates the mechanism of the security forces. “The Bolivarian National Armed Forces support me,” Maduro declared. His opponent, Mr. González Urrutia, demanded that the generals “respect and guarantee that the sovereign will” of the people will be respected.