Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whose re-election on July 28 is contested, demanded Monday that state services act with an “iron fist” after the unrest that left 25 dead according to a new official report.
“As head of state, head of government and president of Venezuela, I demand from all the powers of the State greater speed, greater efficiency and an iron fist in the face of crime, violence and hate crimes. An iron fist and severe justice,” Maduro said at a meeting of the Defense and State Council, bringing together all the top Venezuelan officials.
The leader blamed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was unable to run in the election because she was declared ineligible, and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia for the violence, accusing them of an attempted “coup d’état” and of wanting to create a “civil war.”
“Where are the intellectual authors of this violence? […]”Where is Mr. Edmundo González Urrutia? Why is he fleeing? Why doesn’t he show his face? Where is the greatest fascist, Mrs. Machado, who orders killing, who orders assassination?” the president fumed.
“No amnesty offer”
At the meeting, the attorney general reported a new toll of 25 dead and 192 injured in the spontaneous protests that broke out the day after Mr Maduro’s victory was declared.
He also accused the opposition, assuring that “all these deaths can be attributed to the criminal groups manipulated by the ‘comanditos'”, the names given to the opposition militant groups.
Human rights NGOs reported 24 deaths, while Mr Maduro announced the arrest of 2,200 people.
During the meeting, Parliament Speaker Jorge Rodriguez, who was also Maduro’s campaign chief, announced that the assembly would suspend its recess to pass a law regulating social media in order to “protect and defend our people from hatred.” […]terrorism and the spread of fascist and hateful ideas on social networks.”
“Each country has its own model for dealing with the issue of social networks that infect society with anti-values,” commented Mr. Maduro, a heavy user of the networks, but who suspended X for ten days on Friday and who regularly attacks Whatsapp or TikTok.
X’s suspension and the campaign against social networks are “an escalation in the censorship system” […] “The government identifies social networks as the mechanism through which people can obtain information. This is part of this dark chapter that we are living,” said Giulio Cellini, director of the political consultancy Logconsultancy, on Friday.
This call for firmness from President Maduro comes as the opposition, which claims victory, has called for demonstrations on Saturday.
The protests that broke out the day after the election were repressed by the police, who did not intervene on August 3 during an opposition rally in the capital Caracas. Since then, the opposition has not called for demonstrations.
Ms Machado and Mr González Urrutia are living in hiding and have not been seen in public for about ten days.
Washington, for its part, said it had “made no offer of amnesty to Maduro or to others since this election.”
Many observers and even some members of the opposition believe that a democratic transition requires an amnesty for Venezuela’s top leaders.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified Mr. Maduro’s victory on August 2 with 52% of the vote, without publishing the exact count and the minutes of the polling stations, claiming to have been the victim of computer hacking.
According to the opposition, which published the minutes obtained through its scrutineers – whose legitimacy is rejected by Mr Maduro – Edmundo González Urrutia won the election with 67% of the vote.
The opposition and many observers believe that the hacking claimed by the CNE is an invention of the government to avoid publishing electoral documents.