Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday called on the nation to use an “iron fist” in the wake of deadly protests against his July re-election, which was dismissed at home and abroad as a sham.
As the official death toll from the protests rose to 25, Maduro called for “harsh justice” for the violence he blames on the opposition, who claim their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, won a landslide victory in the July 28 vote.
“I call for faster, more efficient and an iron fist from all the powers of the state against crime, violence and hate crimes,” the socialist leader said at a meeting of the National Defense Council.
Widespread protests erupted after Maduro was declared president-elect by the CNE electoral council, which is seen as loyal to the regime.
Observatories reported that more than 2,000 people were arrested in a brutal crackdown by security forces.
Maduro, meanwhile, has criticized Gonzalez Urrutia and popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose bid to run for president was rejected by state-aligned institutions.
“Where are the intellectual leaders of this violence, where are the financiers of this violence, where are those who planned this,” Maduro denounced on Monday.
“Where is Mr. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia? Why has he fled? Why has he not shown his face? Where is Madame Machado, the greatest fascist who ordered the murders, who ordered the assassinations?” he continued.
Both leaders are in hiding, citing fears for their lives and threats of arrest.
Within hours of the polls closing, the CNE announced that Maduro had won with 52% of the vote, without giving a detailed breakdown.
The opposition claims that its own tally of polling station-level results showed that Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, won more than two-thirds of the vote.
Several Western and Latin American countries have rejected Maduro’s claim of victory.
– “A range of options” –
At a meeting on Monday, pro-regime Attorney General Tarek William Saab said two National Guard members were among the 25 people killed in two days of protests after the vote.
He said 192 people were injured by “firearms, knives and various blunt objects” and explosives, blaming opposition “criminal gangs” for the attacks.
Maduro has accused opposition leaders of instigating a “coup” against him and stoking a “civil war situation”, which he said has calmed down.
Maduro was re-elected in 2018 but was rejected by dozens of countries, including the United States and EU member states.
But years of harmful sanctions have failed to oust a president who has earned the loyalty of the military leadership, state institutions and even Russia, China and Cuba.
The US State Department on Monday denied a Wall Street Journal report that Washington had offered Maduro an amnesty as a way out of the emerging crisis.
But it said the country was “considering various options to put pressure on President Maduro and return Venezuela to a democratic path.”
Also at the meeting, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said he had spoken to Foreign Minister Gonzalez Urrutia and reiterated the EU’s commitment to “the publication and verification of the voting record, an end to repression and the need for dialogue.”
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said he was “actively monitoring” the situation after receiving “multiple reports of violent incidents and other allegations.”
The court is investigating possible crimes against humanity committed by government forces during opposition protests in 2017 that left more than 100 people dead.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s pro-government Congress canceled a holiday for lawmakers to consider a series of bills to regulate social media and NGOs.
Congress Speaker Jorge Rodriguez said the law “aims to protect and safeguard our citizens against the spread of hatred, terrorism and fascist ideology.”
Machado called for protests in Venezuela and around the world on Saturday.
mbj/ba/pgf/nn/mlr/st
