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The election in Venezuela,
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thousands of Venezuelans are protesting the results and now world leaders are
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commenting on the alleged fraud to help us understand the situation.
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We have Doctor Carl Berg,
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professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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Hello, Doctor, how's it going?
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I'm good. Thanks for having me on.
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Awesome. Thank you for joining us.
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We're just gonna get right into it.
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What has led up to this election?
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you know, opposition leader and Mundo Gonzalez had a lot of
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momentum and people were excited to vote.
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Well, according to pre election polls,
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Gonzalez was leading Maduro,
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the incumbent president by at least a 35 point margin.
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So it was projected to be a blowout.
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No one necessarily expected the elections to be free and fair given
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the Venezuelan government's history of manipulating elections in the past.
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But the announcement at midnight on Sunday that Maduro had won with
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51% of the vote just did not align with with polls
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And then it came out that the opposition had collected a
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large number of vote tallies about 70% of all voters in the
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country showing that Gonzalez had actually won by about a 7030 margin
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And why do you like,
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why do many believe that it has been unfair election?
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And that Maduro intervened?
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Well, Maduro has a history of intervening in,
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in elections. The last election was widely seen as,
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as fraudulent. He is an unpopular leader.
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Maduro has overseen the worst economic crisis in Venezuela and the worst
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migrant exodus that it is seen about 20% of the country has
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has left. And so what's next for Venezuela if Maduro
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Well, everyone is waiting to see what the government's response is
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and it seems pretty clear that the government's response is to crack
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down with security forces,
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both official police and these paramilitary biker gangs called Dios.
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I've seen reports of about 12 people dead and maybe 800 people
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arrested. Those numbers will certainly go up.
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It seems that the strategy they're taking is just to ride it
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out with repression. If that happens.
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I expect we will see more Venezuelans seek to leave the country
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than even up till now.
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Well, is the opposition to Maduro trying to fight the alleged
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fraud. Yes, the opposition has collected these things called a
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Aktas are vote tallies by mesa by voting table.
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Officially. The government is supposed to release this and actually post
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it on the website of the elections board.
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the government has claimed that they were victims of a hacking attack
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and that is why they could not post these.
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However, these are all supposed to be shared publicly,
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including with observers and the opposition.
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So the opposition was able to collect about 73% of them up
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till now. And according to the opposition,
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they clearly show Gonzalez winning by a very wide margin.
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the international community is demanding that the Maduro government post these afta
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online and provide proof that he did win by the margin that
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they have reported. And up until now,
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they have not provided this proof.
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And do you think that Maduro and the government will face some
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you know, international pressure from other leaders now?
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Well, the Maduro government has faced a lot of international pressure
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up till now and it has survived.
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These elections were the product of negotiations with the US with the
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Biden administration to allow for something resembling free and fair elections in
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exchange for sanctions relief.
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And this is something that the Biden administration wanted because it really
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wants to restrict the number of migrants coming to the southern border
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ahead of the election because they're worried about losing the election over
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the migration issue. And they also want to lower oil prices
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because they're also worried about losing the election over inflation.
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So we'll see the US reimpose sanctions.
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We'll see other countries place Venezuela in a kind of pariah status
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but it's been that way for a long time and Maduro
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has managed to survive really by relying on the military for his
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support. What do you think will unfold next for?
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Well, unfortunately, right now it's a lot of violence we
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a lot of people protesting and the government taking extreme measures to
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repress those protesters and that is going on right now.
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And I think this is going to continue and I think if
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the Maduro government and Maduro himself feel that their backs are up
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against the wall, they're going to do everything they can to
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stay in power. But there's always the possibility that the
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important sectors that back him,
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notably the military would abandon him if that were to happen
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it's it's a lot to say the least.
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But thank you so much for your time and where can
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people stay informed about Venezuela and like any updates on this,
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people can follow me on,
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on Twitter at MP beg.
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However, I would like to point people to other Venez
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and specifically Venezuelan activists and and commentators.
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And you know, I think one good resource as a jumping
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off point is a blog called Caracas Chronicles.
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I think you can find a lot of Venezuelan voices there but
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you know, just go on socials and look for Venezuelan commentators
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There are a lot of people are posting what's going
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on on the ground in real time and risking their lives to
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perfect. Thank you so much for your time and we'll
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keep an eye on these things because it's getting crazy.
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Thanks for having me.
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