Maduro Isolates Venezuela and the Country Falls Into Chaos

Edmundo González Urrutia urges the Armed Forces to stop ‘the repression’ in the demonstrations.  He regretted that in recent hours there have been “reports of people killed and dozens injured and arrested” during the protests.

Venezuela’s Maduro is embarking on a strategy of “suicidal” economic isolationism, which will affect Venezuela more than its trading partners in the region. While the international community demands a recount of the votes, Venezuelans protest in Caracas against the results released by the government of Nicolás Maduro.  The lack of a transparent and reliable system for counting votes in the Venezuelan presidential elections has undermined Venezuela’s diplomatic relations with most countries in the region.  Earlier, Panama and the governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay expressed their “deep concern” over the development of the presidential elections on July 28, 2024 in Venezuela.

On Monday, angry Venezuelans started pulling down statues of Hugo Chávez. It was one day after an election in which, if the exit polls were even close to correct, they had elected a new president in a landslide—Edmundo González Urrutia. And yet their dictator, Nicolás Maduro, has claimed victory.  Behind Urrutia is the Iron Lady of Venezuela, who has long resisted the regime. María Corina Machado is a slight, 56-year-old Yale grad born to a wealthy family. Perhaps that’s why Maduro and his people underestimated her. They considered her too white and too rich to win the majority’s support. But after decades of inflation, starvation, corruption, and a refugee crisis that has impacted every single country in the Americas, including the United States, Venezuelans began to see María Corina as their only hope, writes Jonathan Jakubowicz, a native Venezuelan now living in the U.S. Her slogan is “hasta el final,” which translates to “until the end.” As Jonathan writes, she “knows the regime is capable of anything to stay in power,” but “unlike the opposition leaders that came before her, she will keep on fighting”—as her people will in the coming days.