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CATHOLIC HERALD
All the polls had indicated that Venezuela’s 28 July elections would lead to a decisive defeat of leader Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power for 11 years, and to an end to 25 years of the left-wing ideology “Chavismo” that began with Hugo Chávez.
But once more the regime showed it’s not willing to go, announcing shortly after midnight that the president was re-elected. The Catholic Church, which has to deal with an especially fierce persecution by the government, reacted with the same incredulity that the Venezuelan masses have shown to the results released by the electoral authority that flew in the face of those previous polls.
Many electoral surveys showed that the major opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez was ahead of Nicolas Maduro by a huge margin of 30 or 35 per cent of support. But the government-controlled National Electoral Council announced Maduro’s victory with 51 per cent of the ballots, while Gonzalez had only 44 per cent.
In cities all over the country, Catholics have joined demonstrations promoted by the opposition against Maduro. Lay brothers and priests have played an important role in some of these demonstrations.
“We were part of the avant-garde of the march here in my diocese, Brother Giovanni Luisio Mass, who heads the canonical association Order of the Poor Knights of Christ in Venezuela, and who lives in El Tigre, the State capital of Anzoátegui, told Crux.
He explains: “When the news of Maduro’s election arrived, we felt a deep indignation.”
He and his community began to pray and went to the streets to sing the national anthem and protest against what many people saw as a scandalous fraud.
“We peacefully demonstrated, inspiring more and more Catholics to do so. We learned that other priests are willing to go to the streets tomorrow, maybe even our bishop. The important thing is to show to the whole world that we know that Gonzalez was the real winner,” Mass said.
Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado – the most important opposition leader in the South American country, but who was forbidden by the judiciary to be a candidate at the beginning of the year and thus decided to support Gonzalez – declared that they will keep struggling to prove through the voting records that Maduro lost the elections.
The United States and many other nations demanded that Venezuela proceeds with a transparent recount of the ballots and give access to all records to members of the opposition and observers.
Maduro’s government has already expelled diplomats from seven countries that questioned the electoral results: Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.
While most countries and institutions expressed doubts over the elections almost immediately after the results were released, the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference published a statement on social media on the afternoon of July 29.
The declaration stated that the bishops followed “with attention the development of the latest events” and were “available to pastorally accompany [all] during such moments of uncertainty”.
It added: “Let’s remain firm in hope. Our ideas and fair claims must be manifested with the peaceful attitudes, respectful and full of tolerance, which have been dominant till now.”
Some demonstrations did involve acts of vandalism against government buildings or the headquarters of Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). That was the case in El Tigre, also, where a video sent to Crux by Mass shows young men throwing rocks against a PSUV building.
The bishops’ statement concludes with a demand for a transparent recount of votes:
“We unite our voices to those of everybody who, inside or outside of Venezuela, require a process of verification of the voting ballots in which all implicated political agents can actively and fully take part,” the declaration says.
While the time taken by the episcopate to issue a view regarding Maduro’s supposed victory caused frustration among many Venezuelan Catholics, the firm demand for a recount was received with satisfaction.
“The bishops should have [been] prepared to issue a statement immediately after the results’ announcement,” Father José Palmar told Crux from his exile in Miami. “Nobody can take hours or even a whole day to manifest an important opinion in the current world.”
“But thank God they asked for a recount and took the side of all Venezuelans who have been suffering with the regime,” Fr Palmer said.
He explained that electoral fraud is always a real possibility in Venezuela, but that this time people thought that the government wouldn’t “dare to do so, given the absurd advantage Gonzalez had over Maduro”.
“That’s an electoral crime. It was almost a self-coup and not so much a fraud. Thank God María Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez will not negotiate the truth, like other opposition candidates did in the past,” Fr Palmer said.
Many analysts say Maduro faces a tough situation to secure his supposed victory, given such a strong repudiation from the international community and the scenario of growing protests across the country. Palmar agrees with them.
“It’s been more than two decades of poor public services, no job, no food, no electricity, no medicines ,” he said. “People just cannot stand it anymore. People will keep protesting – and it can snowball.”
Photo: Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government protest at the Catia neighbourhood following the Venezuelan presidential election, Caracas, Venezuelan, 29 July 2024. (Photo by YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images.)