Chávez's heir Maduro wins elections in Venezuela by 1.5 points, 7 dead in protests

15th April.- After five hours counting votes the Venzuelan Board of Elections has officially called yesterday's elections for the acting President and leader of the Unified Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV), Nicolás Maduro.

With 99% of precincts reporting, Maduro got 7.505.338 (50.66%) votes for the 7.270.403 (49.08%) obtained by opposition leader Henrique Capriles. In comparison to the previous elections, held last September, the PSUV lost nearly 700.000 votes now that charismatic 3-termer Hugo Chávez wasn't leading the ticket anymore. Meanwhile, Capriles improved his results by the similar amount of 670.000 votes, marking the best result ever for an opposition leader in the country.

Maduro, who was endorsed by a terminally ill Chávez himself before travelling to Cuba to undergo a treatment he didn't recover from, accepted the results and thanked his people, reports the Associated Press. Capriles, meanwhile, asked for a recount and announced he would not recognize Maduro as a legitimate president until "every single vote was counted", according to the Spanish newspaper El País.

The US Department of State spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, has also supported the petition, which would give the process "democratic guarantees".

Maduro is expected to be formally declared winner today, regardless of the recount.

Gee I'm so surprised.

Best ever total for an opposition party is pretty interesting though, and it's a very close vote despite how "cherished" Chavez was. I'd be interested to see if this gets ugly or not.

Oh... right, just wanted to show you guys what's up on my country right now:



Those are the votes being burned. And this is the people fighting for their rights in my city:





So yeah, things are getting tense here. If Maduro is formally declared winner, things are going to get ugly for sure.

Sorry for my bad english :/

Any sources for these pictures? Specially the first one, because it looks certainly... well, not very democratic.

I'm not sure what to make of it. The ruling party is able to influence most government machinery so they'll probably let these militant activists get away with it. Apparently there's coverage on iCNN.

For the first picture there's just Facebook, sadly. But there's already information of boxes being left all over the country. Leopoldo López (One of the leaders of the party: PJ "Justice First") tweeted some hours ago about it. There's also information about militars being arrested because of their opposition to Maduro's proclaim. The other pictures are ones taken from friends of mine. I mean, we all live right next to the CNE's (National Electoral Council) local office.

Here some pictures of the offices in other cities:





Henrique Capriles said that if Maduro gets proclaimed as president today before the recount, everyone will start a pacific (which of course it's not going to be) protest at 8pm.

I'm not sure what to make of it. The ruling party is able to influence most government machinery so they'll probably let these militant activists get away with it. Apparently there's coverage on iCNN.

Click to expand...

That's exactly it. The reason for the recount is because there's already info about boxes of votes being tossed and burned around the country.

Oh just something extra: I have class today, and with so many people outside I can't even get out of my building.

Edit: Maduro is being proclamed right now as you read all this

Edit 2:

This is urgent, I mean, this is happening (as for NOW) right next to my building!!

VIDEO from Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151355809731333

A little terrorist group called the tupamaros, shooted students protesting in front of the CNE at 12-1am (Vzlan Time). The national guards fired back at them, and two were found dead.
There's a lot of people injured, and is speculated that they were sent by a oficialist commander. (The watchman of my building said that to me)

It's not Ok in any way. I respect other people's opinion but this is just going too far: my friends got injured.
Sorry for my bad english.

Edit 3: It's 3:35am, I can't sleep. Got a better video filmed by one of the students:



They're saying: "Shots! Shots! Run! Run!" "Careful, these are the violent ones, violent -Chavistas-" "Bullets!" "Long Live Venezuela! ****" "Freedom" "Long Live Venezuela" "We're not afraid of you!" "Let's go up, I'm not gonna stop filming. Here, here!" "Let's go up, come on, we're safe here" "Sirs, they're fighting with the people, the people that's protesting pacifically" "There they are, look" "The Armed Force has acted well" "Is someone hurt?" "This is what **** Maduro wanted!"
---Some screaming with forbbiden words---
"They were tupamaros, they were tupamaros" "Lberty/Freedom" He yells.
"Oh no, they're fighting there again"
"It was a violent group that threatened us 3 times, from 11pm to now (12am-1am)" "They've tried to enter, but the police guarded us" "They came up later shooting. We were just sitting, in a pacifical attitude" "Here they are, here they are" "Like the other parts of the country, oficialists, government people. I don't knwo if they were sent from the government but there's people that came to kill the students, and they're taking them arrested" "LET'S GO OUTSIDE!" "Those were like 300 shots" "We're not afraid! We're not afraid!" "Let's go downstairs"

Please, someone has to do something...

I've been trying to get sources from news outlets, but it's 5 o clock in the morning and this wouldn't make breaking news in North America. Judging from what I'm watching and seeing, Maduro probably will remain president, but it's clear that his rule would be uneasy considering all of the problems he inherited, as well as because half the country voted for the liberal coalition.

I'm not very familiar with Venezuelan politics, except for the fact that it resembles politics in the US and Canada at the beginning of the 20th century - involved a lot of clientilism and getting out the vote. Some American officials who have worked with Maduro claims he's pragmatic and move away from Chavez if that's what the opposition wants. I don't think anybody really knows how the unity of their party is doing now that Chavez is gone, so that's a factor as well. At the end of the day, the opposition has made great strides, so even if they do not form government right now, their voice will definitely be heard.

I'll tell you what's going on:

The national forces are all over the country attacking our pacific protest groups.
They're setting their own buildings on fire and blaming the opposition.
Controlling the media, they make us look like we are the villains, that we are making a lot of vandalism and hitting other people, but we're just delivering the papers needed to make the recount. And while Maduro is talking nonsense and blocking the only opposition channel on tv, military forces are breaking into people's houses and threatening everyone out on the streets.

They've killed a lot of us already. My friends got hurt, some others are dead. If you can, please spread the news.
This is not a simple election problem, this is the government calling for violence and war between both sides.

I'll keep posting here about this. Please help us spread the information, we want all the help we can get.

Also, I suggest the threads title to be changed to something more attractive. The things going on here are a Major Issue at international level, and safety is first for all of us. Maduro's not going to accept the recount of votes, he wants people to fight each other.

These are some pictures and videos from all over the social networks: (Warning, strong content ahead, watch on your own consideration)

Yup, al-Jazeera and Reuters confirms deaths. The number is 7 according to government sources, but that just means we can be assured it's more. I'll admit, I didn't expect this to happen, I thought the whole thing would be a wash. Turns out Maduro is a pretty slick guy. He has everything to gain from violence. The polls won't be counted, and he can rally his partisan forces and justify a restriction of liberties. It doesn't matter who caused the deaths, or who is orchestrating the violence. All that matters is that the ruling party is able to take advantage of it. They are accusing the opposition leader of a coup, and are looking for ways to punish him through the legal system.

I don't have any experience in Venezuela - but governments can use their judicial system unfairly: Ukraine's president has former president Yulia Tymoshenko imprisoned - if you want to read more, here's some wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_cases_against_Yulia_Tymoshenko_since_2010

Maduro is playing hardball here - I suppose the only way for the opposition to win out on this is to continue opposing him and overthrow him, however possible that is. Otherwise he will snuff out the opposition like a flame. By trying to stop political demonstrations, polarizing the people, and trying to crack down on the opposition leadership, he seeks to neuter the opposition and prevent it from challenging his rule - which let's not forget would already be difficult with the death of Chavez and possible inner-party conflict.

This will probably go the way of most political crackdowns, but who knows, does anybody have a more positive outlook on the opposition?

Let's remember that a mid-term recall election can be held if enough people ask for it- one was set up against Chávez already, and this time Maduro's victory looks anything but guaranteed.

Now the question is what will have happened three years from now.

Maduro has won for now, Capriles has called off the demonstration. I guess all the opposition can do is bide their time and make Maduro's rule as difficult as possible.

It doesn't matter who caused the deaths, or who is orchestrating the violence. All that matters is that the ruling party is able to take advantage of it. They are accusing the opposition leader of a coup, and are looking for ways to punish him through the legal system.

Click to expand...

Maduro's stepping over the law. They've already rejected the proposal of the recount. And, despite being the major part of the people against him by now -because they've seen what he has done-, he made this government authoritarian, they own all the public powers and the constitution is just a joke for them.

By trying to stop political demonstrations, polarizing the people, and trying to crack down on the opposition leadership, he seeks to neuter the opposition and prevent it from challenging his rule - which let's not forget would already be difficult with the death of Chavez and possible inner-party conflict.

Click to expand...

I think, we can only wait for Capriles' words, and see what's going to happen in the capital Caracas. But with the things happened this far, the only solution seems to be protest.


This is in Miami, FL.

If you understand spanish you could watch Globovision (The only public opposition channel in the State):

Click here to watch Live

Keep spreading the news and excuse me for any mistakes made. With the demonstrations called off, violence has mostly stopped but there's still people getting hurt outside.

If you're with the cause and want to help, please sign this petition to call upon the International Community to urge the full recount of votes: Link