Socialist dictator Maduro ‘wins’ boycotted election
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s fractured opposition emerged even more powerless Monday, a day after an election it boycotted propelled socialist President Nicolas Maduro to an easy victory amid a crushing economic crisis.
The coalition’s strategy to sit out the vote succeeded at exposing declining support for the government. Yet it also leaves Maduro’s opponents even more dependent on international pressure seeking to force change in this South American oil-exporting nation where people are starving and are fleeing in droves.
Even before the govern- ment-controlled National Election Council declared Maduro the overwhelming winner, nations around the world had accused him of taking Venezuela down the path toward “dictatorship.” The election registered the lowest turnout in decades — around
46 percent — as many voters stayed home while the opposition warned the election was rigged.
It’s an outcome likely to further weaken Maduro’s legitimacy in the eyes of many, though not necessarily his grip on power.
There has been no sign of wavering support from the leadership of Venezuela’s military, which long was the arbiter of Venezuela’s political disputes. And Venezuelans busy trying to survive amid widespread food shortages and hyperinflation seem too demoralized to engage in protests like the ones that last year resulted in more than 140 people being killed by Maduro’s enforcers.
Opponents of the socialist revolution installed by the late President Hugo Chavez have few options, said Jennifer McCoy, a Georgia State University political scientist who led five electoral missions to Venezuela on behalf of the Carter Center until 2013.
“The opposition for some time has been waiting for something to save them,” she said.
In one minor protest Monday, 30 opposition activists marched onto a major highway that a year ago was filled with tens of thousands of anti-government protesters. They unfurled a giant Venezuelan flag shouting, “This was a farce — not an election.” Then they rolled up the flag and dispersed. It lasted 10 minutes.
“It’s so hard to mobilize people who are desperately trying to survive or figure out how to leave the country,” McCoy said.
President Donald Trump did move Monday to strengthen sanctions on Maduro, signing an executive order that makes it harder for his government to sell off state assets.