U.S. worries violence may follow Maduro’s claim of election victory in Venezuela

Biden administration officials are expressing concern that Nicolás Maduro’s claimed election victory in Venezuela could prompt democratic protests nationwide — and a potentially brutal crackdown by regime forces that have responded in kind to past demonstrations.

An outpouring of anger and despair was evident on the streets of Venezuela’s largest cities Sunday night, as the country’s electoral body declared Maduro the winner by the slimmest of margins. The outcome appeared statistically impossible based on official data obtained by opposition leaders before the regime’s election officials stopped transmitting results and began kicking opposition representatives from voting stations before the tally could be completed.

Exit polling conducted by respected independent firms and quick count reports gathered also showed that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had won the election by a vote margin of two to one.

Accusations of fraud were widespread against the Maduro regime after its government officials refused to allow local precincts to independently verify the vote, withholding printout receipts from voting machines.

It was an outcome U.S. officials had suspected and feared, despite hoping in the final stretch of the campaign that support for the opposition movement could be significant enough to overwhelm Maduro’s efforts.

“We do fear the possibility of violence,” one U.S. official told McClatchy, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

READ MORE: Amid overwhelming desire for change, Venezuelans turn out to vote for president Sunday

Speaking from Tokyo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that Venezuelans went to the polls with “courage and commitment to democracy in the face of repression.”

“We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” Blinken said. “It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes. The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly.”

The numbers

Venezuela’s Consejo Nacional Electoral, the country’s official election body that is run by allies of Maduro, claimed he won 51.2% of the vote, and Gonzalez, 74, won 44.2%.

The council’s announcement sets up Maduro for a third presidential term that would expire in 2031 and that would extend into a third decade the socialist revolution initiated by his predecessor and mentor, the late president Hugo Chávez.

However, Gonzalez and his political mentor, Maria Corina Machado, immediately questioned the results announced by the council, pointing out that the data they had received directly from the electoral agency, before it halted the process without explanation, showed Gonzalez with 70% of the vote compared to barely 30% for Maduro.

“It is impossible,” said Machado referring to the announced results, adding that it was a crude lie that seeks to hide the truth plain to all Venezuelans: that Gonzalez “obtained the largest margin of votes in a presidential election in the history of Venezuela.”

She added that three exit polls carried out by well-known independent firms had provided similar results during the day. Edison Research, a respected U.S. firm used by major media to conduct exit polls in U.S. presidential elections, was among the pollsters that reported a comfortable victory for Gonzalez.

Opposition leaders had previously warned that Venezuelan officials had been ejecting their representatives from polling stations before the votes were counted and that they had only been provided with the results of 30% of the vote, a number that later rose to 40%.

Machado asked Gonzalez’s followers to continue waiting at the polling stations to receive the rest of the voting records and finish gathering evidence needed to document fraud.

The U.S. and Venezuela

U.S. government officials had been signaling for days their concerns that Maduro would attempt to steal the election. The White House National Security Council warned Friday that it feared such an outcome could prompt a repressive crackdown — concerns that one White House official told McClatchy remained on Monday morning.

Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the administration would “hold judgment” until the full results of the election are published in a transparent manner.

“We are concerned the partial results released by Venezuelan electoral authorities don’t reflect the people’s votes & call for the release of full, detailed results for transparency,” Watson wrote.

On Sunday, before the results were announced, Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on social media that “the will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.”

“Despite the many challenges, we will continue to work toward a more democratic, prosperous, and secure future for the people of Venezuela,” she stated.

But Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican, blamed the Biden administration for offering sanctions relief to the Maduro regime over the past year to ensure that they would hold an election that all parties knew would be rigged.

“The Maduro regime in Venezuela has just carried out the most predictable and ridiculous sham election in modern history,” Rubio wrote on X, predicting that the Maduro regime would soon begin to black out internet inside the country “to make it difficult for those inside to communicate with each other and to the world.”

“Biden & Harris broadly eased Trump sanctions on Maduro regime as part of a ‘deal’ for elections in Venezuela,” Rubio added. “Today was that election and it was a complete fraud. The latest example of how our enemies have suckered Biden and Harris repeatedly over the last four years.”