Venezuelans are ready to get rid of the dictatorship. Can the international community support us?
Mr Maduro did not win the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday. He lost by a large majority to Edmundo Gonzalez, with 67% of the vote compared to 30%. I know this is true because I can prove it. I have receipts obtained directly from more than 80 per cent of the country’s polling stations.
We knew that Maduro’s government was going to cheat. We have known for years what tricks the regime uses and we know perfectly well that the National Electoral Council is under its absolute control. It was unthinkable for Maduro to admit defeat.
The regime did its best to sabotage and derail our campaign. Even though I won an open primary with 92 percent of the vote, I was banned from running for president. Then he disqualified my chosen replacement, Corina Yoris. Finally, Mr. Gonzalez bravely took this job. Meanwhile, dozens of my colleagues were imprisoned and six of my main collaborators, including my campaign manager, sought asylum at the Embassy of Argentina.
The regime could never have imagined that our movement would grow in number and slowly seize the entire electoral base of Chavismo. The poor and rural people who drove Hugo Chávez’s meteoric rise are now disillusioned and have taken control of his future. We started this self-funded campaign on the periphery and moved to urban areas.
Our people were like a tsunami. He is tired of a quarter-century of divisions, hatred and ideology. He wants to get their families back and their dignity. Organically, communities were organized into more than 60,000 commands, small campaign units installed around kitchen tables across the country. More than a million volunteers took on specific roles to prepare for the election, training to defend each of the votes to be cast that day.
Edmundo González and María Corina Machado. Photo EDH – EFE
From the early hours of Sunday, we understood the unifying force that this massive civic action would bring. We saw voter turnout increase like a rocket. Minutes after the results began to arrive, we confirmed that our victory was overwhelming. And we knew that those in power, terrified of the personal consequences of decades of bad governance, would do everything possible to cling to power.
They did. They announced a fraudulent result at 11 p.m. on Sunday, indicating that Maduro had won with 51% of the vote with 80% of the votes counted. The truth is that Maduro did not win in any of Venezuela’s 24 states. This was confirmed not only by four different quick counts and two independent exit polls, but also for each of the voting receipts we saw coming in real time.
In the hurry, Maduro acted to neutralize our witnesses, volunteer witnesses at polling stations. Orders were given to make their job impossible, to expel them from polling stations, to deny them the physical constancy of the results. These orders were disobeyed by the staff of the National Electoral Council and the military. Against all odds, our witnesses protected voters’ vouchers all night with their lives.
By Monday morning we had collected almost half of those receipts. On Monday afternoon we had enough to confirm the mathematical certainty of our victory. The next day, they were posted on a website for everyone to see. The evidence of this blatant fraud was presented to heads of state around the world.
The National Electoral Council, which is required to publish these results by law no later than 48 hours after the election, quickly closed its own website. The reason, its members claim, is a cyberattack from northern Macedonia.
After this farce, spontaneous protests erupted, especially in poor sectors of Caracas and other cities. Maduro responded with brutal repression. State security forces have killed at least 20 Venezuelans, jailed more than 1,000 and forced 11 disappearances. Most of our team is in hiding and, after seven diplomatic missions were expelled from Venezuela, my collaborators at the Embassy of Argentina are being protected by the Brazilian government. They could capture me while I write these words.
We Venezuelans have done our duty. We voted for Maduro to come out of power. Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government. Repression must cease immediately, so that there can be an urgent agreement that facilitates the transition to democracy. I appeal to those who reject authoritarianism and support democracy to join the Venezuelan people in our noble cause. We will not rest until we are free.”