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Venezuela - 2024 Election - President

Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 28 July 2024 to choose a president for a six-year term beginning on 10 January 2025. Exit polls showed pposition challenger Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia winning 65% and Maduro getting 31%. There is no way these exit polls were off by 30%. The de facto victory of current President Nicolás Maduro was already known. Maduro claimed 51.2% of the voters voted for him. Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez did not recognize the official result, insisting they won in all states with 70% of the vote. "We want to say to all of Venezuela and the world that Venezuela has a new president-elect and it is Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia," opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told journalists, adding: "We won." It was already clear in advance that both sides would not recognize each other's victory.

Venezuela's Attorney General announced plans to prosecute opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado, Lester Toledo, and Leopoldo Lopez for alleged election interference. These prosecutions are being launched on orders from Nicolas Maduro.

The governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay express "profound concern" over the election, The Costa Rican government issued a communique on the results of the elections in Venezuela, saying they were falsified and does not recognize Maduro as its president. Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, who called for the OAS meeting to discuss the "delicate situation" in Venezuela in a post on X, also said: "Throughout the region, there are politicians who try to cling to power and who intend to snatch peace from our citizens," he said, warning of "the danger of dictatorship". Brasilia "reaffirms the fundamental principle of popular sovereignty, which must be respected through the impartial verification of the results", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"DICTATOR MADURO, OUT! Venezuelans chose to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro," Argentine President Javier Milei asserted on X. "The data announce a landslide victory for the opposition and the world is waiting for them to recognise their defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and death. Argentina will not recognise another fraud, and expects the Armed Forces this time to defend democracy and the will of the people." Chile President Gabriel Boric said: "Maduro's regime must understand that the results are hard to believe. The international community and especially the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand total transparency."

However, other regional leaders more ideologically aligned with Maduro offered their congratulations on winning a third term, as did the president's allies from beyond Latin America. Both China and Russia congratulated Maduro on his re-election. "China stands ready to enrich our all-weather strategic partnership and better benefit the peoples of both countries," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular briefing. "Russian-Venezuelan relations have the character of a strategic partnership. I am confident that your work at the head of state will continue to contribute to their progressive development in all areas ... Remember that you are always welcome on Russian soil," Putin said, according to the Kremlin. Cuba, Honduras and Bolivia took to social media to congratulate Maduro on his victory.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, for his part, had toughened his tone in the run-up to the vote, claiming that a victory for the opposition could plunge the country into “a fratricidal civil war provoked by fascists” and warning of a “bloodbath”. Maduro is vying for a third term after being in power for more than a decade. But weakened by economic crisis and a deteriorating security situation, Hugo Chavez's chosen successor is trailing in polls against opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who is looking to open a new chapter in Venezuela’s history.

This presidential election represents a critical moment for Venezuela and the future of democracy in the region. The stakes are incredibly high as the results could either entrench authoritarian rule or open the door to transformative democratic reforms. Such changes could tackle the ongoing humanitarian crisis, restore the rule of law, and reconnect Venezuela with the global community. Additionally, the fate of almost 8 million Venezuelans living abroad and those still in the country hangs in the balance, with potential implications for increased migration if the situation further deteriorates.

A decade of economic crisis that has plunged the country into poverty – and fuelled the exodus of several million Venezuelans – is proving a difficult legacy to overcome, and Venezuela may be on the cusp of rejecting decades of state-centric Chavismo policies. The United States does not recognize leftist President Nicolas Maduro, candidate for the Great Patriotic Pole Simón Bolívar (GPPSM), as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. The Venezuelan opposition on 30 December 2022 dissolved the interim government led by Juan Guaido, once the popular and internationally recognized face of the drive to oust leftist leader Nicolas Maduro. The vote came in the opposition-controlled National Assembly, a body elected in 2015 and now largely symbolic as it was replaced by a legislature loyal to Maduro. The tally was 72 in favor of dissolving the interim government, 29 against and eight abstentions Three of four major parties in the Venezuelan opposition voted to end the interim government led by Guaido. "The interim government is no longer useful," these parties said in a joint statement, "and is of no interest to citizens."

Venezuela's opposition hoped a presidential nominating contest will rally supporters after years of futile attempts to unseat the government of President Nicolas Maduro, but it faced deep voter apathy as people struggle to afford food and other basics. Opposition lawmakers named a new three-person leadership for their parallel legislature, which is recognized by many Western countries as Venezuela's last remaining democratic body. Now, they needed a presidential candidate who can persuade voters to make him or her the next leader of Venezuela. But after years in the political wilderness, the opposition was disjointed - at a time when Maduro is enjoying renewed relations with neighbors Colombia and Brazil and some loosened U.S. restrictions.

While Venezuela is legally a multiparty, constitutional republic, the regime of Nicolas Maduro claims control over all public institutions. In November 2021, the Maduro regime organized regional and municipal elections largely perceived as skewed in their favor. Election observers and media reported arbitrary arrests, criminalization of opposition parties’ activities, bans on candidates, and media censorship during the elections. The European Union was allowed to act as election observer for the first time in 15 years, but the Maduro regime asked its observers to leave the country before they could present their final report. In the final report, the European Union noted significant structural deficiencies to the electoral system and provided the regime with 23 recommendations to improve electoral conditions.

The national police largely focus on policing Caracas’ Libertador municipality; patrolling Caracas-area highways, railways, and metro system; and protecting diplomatic missions. The national armed forces patrol other areas of the country. Civilian authorities’ control over the security forces continued to decline and was deeply politicized. Increasingly unpopular with citizens, the Maduro regime depended on civilian and military intelligence services, and to a lesser extent, proregime armed gangs known as colectivos, to neutralize political opposition and subdue the population. There were reports that members of security forces committed numerous abuses. A September 2022 UN report detailed the systematic use of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service and the Military Counterintelligence Directorate to intimidate and control the activities of political opponents.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by regime forces; forced disappearances by the regime; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention by security forces; political prisoners or detainees; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; unlawful interference with privacy; unlawful recruitment or use of child soldiers; serious restrictions on free expression and media, including violence or threats of violence, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and enforcement of or threat to enforce criminal libel laws to limit expression; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections; serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; serious government corruption; serious restrictions on or harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations; lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual violence, workplace violence, femicide, and other forms of such violence; substantial barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health services; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting indigenous peoples such as the Yanomami; trafficking in persons; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; significant restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; and the worst forms of child labor.

Senior national and state leaders of the Maduro regime continued to harass and intimidate privately owned and opposition-oriented television stations, media outlets, and journalists by using threats, property seizures, administrative and criminal investigations, and prosecutions. Maduro regime-owned and -influenced media provided almost continuous proregime programming. In addition, private and public radio and television stations were required to transmit mandatory nationwide broadcasts.

Venezuela's government and opposition agreed on 17 October 2023 to elections. An exact election date will be defined by the country's National Electoral Council, according to the text of the deal. The two sides had resumed talks seeking to end the country's political and economic crisis, after a nearly yearlong suspension.

Maduro said, in so many words, 'well, you send me Alex Saab, you lift sanctions on us, and in exchange I am going to have free elections, and we are going to accept the deportation flights.' Alex Saab is a criminal, a person that the USA spent years trying to extradite from Cape Verde to the US for crimes he committed. Now, he is free like Maduro's nephews who are also drug traffickers convicted in the court of this country. At the same time, now Maduro is basically canceling elections. María Corina Machado, who is the most popular figure, the candidate who was chosen by the opposition, has been removed from the ballot. The dictatorship will continue searching until they have an official candidate, 'from the official opposition', as all these regimes want to have.

The Venezuelan government and the “Unitary Platform”, a grouping of U.S.-backed opposition parties and organizations, signed an agreement regarding conditions and details for this year’s presidential election called the Barbados Agreement. The agreement outlined elements such as a proposed timetable, a rejection of political violence against Venezuelans or any of its state institutions, the presence of international observation missions, and conditions and guarantees for participation. The agreement was part of a process of dialogue which the Venezuelan government has promoted for the last several years in order to address the political crisis facing the country due to numerous U.S.-backed coup attempts.

After the agreement was signed, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it was issuing four licenses which suspended several sanctions against the country and allowed for limited production, investment and sale in the Venezuelan oil, gas and gold sectors. While these coercive measures should have never been in place in the first place, their suspension marked an important advance to strengthen economic recovery efforts.

The United States would ease some oil and gas sanctions against Venezuela after the country's government and opposition agreed to hold elections there next year, the Treasury Department said 18 October 2023. In response to those "democratic developments," the Treasury "has issued General Licenses authorizing transactions involving Venezuela's oil and gas sector and gold sector, as well as removing the ban on secondary trading," a statement from under secretary for terrorism Brian Nelson said. It added, however, that they could be amended or revoked at any time if the electoral deal falls through.

In concrete terms, the US government re-authorized the purchase of Venezuelan oil and gas for a period of six months, which may be renewed "only if Venezuela meets its commitments under the electoral roadmap as well as other commitments with respect to those who are wrongfully detained."

Former lawmaker Maria Corina Machado led the vote count in the Venezuelan opposition's presidential primary by a huge margin and has claimed victory in the 22 October 2023 contest, with final results pending. The vote to choose a unity opposition candidate to face President Nicolas Maduro in his probable re-election bid next year came amid pledges by the United States to roll back sanctions relief if the government fails to lift bans preventing some opposition figures from holding office. Machado was tallying 93% of the vote, with just over 26% of ballot boxes counted, the primary's organizing commission said around midnight.

However, the government subsequently rejected the outcome of an opposition primary to choose a presidential candidate. Maduro's administration has launched a probe into the primary, claiming it was tainted by fraud.

And Jose Brito, a dissident opposition lawmaker accused by some of being in cahoots with the Maduro government, filed an appeal against the primary to the Supreme Court. "All the outcomes of the different phases of the electoral process... are suspended," read the 30 October 2023 ruling. The top court also reiterated its ban of Machado, for alleged corruption and backing international sanctions against Caracas. Venezuelan officials are demanding the opposition hand over all documents relating to the primary election, including logs that could identify voters.

Venezuela is not allowing the right-wing coup supporter and sanctions backer María Corina Machado to run in the elections due to a 15-year disqualification dating back to 2015. The Supreme Court ratified that decision on January 26, citing her participation in the Juan Guaidó coup attempt and associated acts of corruption that led to the loss of key state assets like the CITGO gas company. Machado was also a key player in the 2014 and 2017 waves of right-wing riots that led to the deaths of dozens of government supporters and those assumed to be government supporters because of the color of their skin. Her exclusion is completely legitimate and in line with common practices around the world that bar people who have committed serious crimes from holding public office. Furthermore, the very same Barbados Agreement that the Biden administration has applauded outlines that candidates must defend Venezuela’s independence and reject violent actions against the government in order to qualify. Machado has been supporting U.S.-backed attacks on the Venezuelan state since the first coup attempt against Hugo Chávez in 2002.

On 29 January 2024, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller announced that his country revoked the relief of sanctions against the international marketing of Venezuelan gold. He also threatened to suspend relief for Venezuelan oil and gas that is due to be renewed in April. President Joe Biden's administration took these measures in response to a decision by the Venezuelan Supreme Court, which politically disqualified until 2036 far-right politicians who carried out actions against the constitutional order.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro expressed his support 30 January 2024 for the call made by the National Assembly (AN) for a dialogue aimed at establishing the 2024 electoral schedule. The Bolivarian leader shared with citizens the agreement whereby legislators rejected any form of ultimatum from the United States against Venezuelan sovereignty and territorial integrity. "I support with all my strength the call for a broad and inclusive dialogue to establish the electoral schedule for 2024. We are a guarantee of peace. Elections now!" stated Maduro. Previously, the National Assembly approved the immediate convening of a dialogue so that various Venezuelan groups can collaboratively develop a proposal for the presidential electoral schedule to present it to the electoral authorities.

On 17 April 2024 the Biden administration reimposed oil sanctions on Venezuela, following President Nicolas Maduro's broken post-election promises for democratic reform. The administration will give companies 45 days to "wind down" business in Venezuela's oil and gas sector. "We are concerned that Maduro and his representatives prevented the democratic opposition from registering the candidate of their choice, harassed and intimidated political opponents, and unjustly detained numerous political actors and members of civil society," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Maduro's party, however, manipulated the proceedings, including barring former lawmaker Maria Corina Machado from running. "It became impossible for the White House to pretend that the Maduro government in any way was complying — or even intended to comply — with the implicit deal in the partial lifting of sanctions," Christopher Sabatini, a research fellow at the Chatham House in London, told The Associated Press. "To have ignored that would have made the U.S. look weak and undermined its credibility in leveraging sanctions not just on Venezuela but elsewhere."

The drop in crime and homicide in the capital is partly explained by widespread impoverishment; extortion and kidnapping have become less profitable. Some gangs have capitalised on the massive wave of migration to pivot to more lucrative activities, notably human trafficking. Today, most homicides are due to the settling of scores or the actions of the police themselves, accounting for more than a third of the total. While he has arguably lost control of the country, Maduro pretends to fight against a lack of security by recruiting and sending poorly trained police officers to working-class neighborhoods, which has led to thousands of extrajudicial executions.

Describing the campaign as “heroic, creative, admirable and proactive”, Nicolás Maduro said that “we have united all the forces of the people”. “We have constituted a new political, social and cultural majority that will be expressed as an overwhelming electoral majority on Sunday, July 28,” Maduro said. “Not only have we united Chavismo, the Bolivarian people are on the streets united as a single block of force,” he said. “For harmony and inclusion to unite all Venezuelans: it is the main task of the moment,” the Venezuelan head of state said while inviting the disappointed leaders of the right to join the candidacy “of the man for peace, Nicolás Maduro: welcome to build homeland, national union”, he said.

In calling on all sectors of the country that suffered sanctions, he said “Only a Bolivarian and Chavista president, only this man who is here, who is not an individual but a people, guarantees peace and stability in this country called Venezuela”. Nicolás Maduro, while recognizing the Venezuelan working class, said “We defeated the sanctions and the blockade, and what we are going for is up, for economic prosperity, but for that peace and stability are needed”. In his speech at the closing of his electoral campaign, candidate Maduro recalled how his Administration has managed to overcome every attack that has been launched against the Venezuelan economy from the extreme far right.

According to data from the National Electoral Council (CNE), over 21 million citizens are authorized to cast their votes in 30,026 polling stations distributed throughout the country.

Opposition challenger Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a former ambassador to Argentina and Algeria, is generating real enthusiasm, considering that his candidacy was somewhat improvised. Urrutia replaced opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on the ballot after Maduro’s Supreme Court controversially invalidated her candidacy. The soft-spoken grandfather is now leading in polls, and may be the opposition’s best hope yet of unseating Maduro.

Maduro was a former trade union leader who became Chavez's foreign minister. When he came to power, he lacked credibility in the eyes of the army, unlike Chavez himself or other possible successors who had military backgrounds. So he had to offer assurances by continuing, and even accelerating, the rise of the army in the spheres of power. If the opposition wins this election, Maduro has spoken of the risk of a "bloodbath". This risk does not come from the opposition side but rather from the powers that be. And if they continue to act against the will of the people, they expose themselves to possibly seeing a wave of massive protests that they will then have to silence.

The army seems reluctant to face such a scenario, or at least less so than in the past, for several reasons. In 2014 and even more so in 2017, the government repressed anti-government demonstrations in an unprecedented way, painting students and young people from the working classes as violent putschists. But today, with the exodus continuing, it is women who are most often at the forefront of pro-opposition rallies – including single mothers and the elderly, who are demanding reforms so that their loved ones can come back home. This would make it that much more difficult to justify any repression of a mass popular movement.

The army's wait-and-see stance is also due to its own discontent and internal divisions. Some have seen their privileges diminish due to the economic crisis. Others, particularly the high-ranking officers, have suffered from foreign sanctions – in particular, the freezing of their assets abroad. It should also be noted that the army's support for Maduro has never been total: among the approximately 300 political prisoners in the country, half are military personnel. Everything, therefore, seems to indicate that the military is considering scenarios besides Nicolas Maduro remaining in power.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino assured that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the candidate of the Great Patriotic Pole, has set an example by recognizing the electoral results, after calling on other contenders to respect the ongoing voting process in the Caribbean nation. “President Maduro has set the example. From the beginning, he has called on all political actors and candidates to respect the official results from the electoral authorities once the voting day is concluded,” Padrino said after casting his vote. The high-ranking Bolivarian official also stated that he was very pleased with the massive citizen turnout at the polling stations, attributing it to a broad consensus for maintaining peace in the nation. “We hope the electoral process ends peacefully and with civility and patience, just as it is currently unfolding,” Padrino said, adding that no significant incidents have been reported at the polling centers.

The situation is somewhat complicated by the fact that on the eve of the elections, observers from among former or current Latin American politicians were not allowed into the country. However, there is nothing surprising here - for the most part, they openly planned to support the opposition, and planned to perform the function of an independent observer on a residual basis. The provocateurs roughly imagined the reaction of the Venezuelan authorities and could well have counted on a refusal of entry, in order to use the fact for subsequent accusations against Maduro's team.

On election night, the president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, declared a win for President Nicolas Maduro without providing data from polling stations, stating that the CNE had been the victim of a computer attack. "We have no evidence of that whatsoever," Jennie Lincoln, head of the Carter Center delegation that was invited to monitor the Venezuela election, told AFP. The CNE did not publish detailed results from the vote due to a hack, while Maduro has denounced what he calls a "criminal cyber-fascist coup d'etat."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has "serious concerns" about the announced result of Venezuela’s hotly contested presidential election that authorities say was won by Maduro. Speaking in Tokyo shortly after the announcement was made, Blinken said the US was concerned that the result reflected neither the will nor the votes of the Venezuelan people. He called for election officials to publish the full results transparently and immediately and said the US and the international community would respond accordingly.

U.S. State Department: "Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election...We congratulate Edmundo González Urrutia on his successful campaign."

The key issue following the vote is the concern about possible US sanctions, which may be strengthened against the background of non-recognition of the elections. However, Maduro recently said that the Venezuelan authorities are in contact with the White House.

Maduro asked the country's Supreme Court to conduct an expert review of the electoral process. The court announced that it had accepted the request and called the president, opposition candidate González and the other candidates to testify. The Venezuelan opposition had uploaded all the data they collected from individual voting centers, showing that with 81% of the vote verified opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had 67% of the vote.

The main cities of Venezuela were the scene of mass protests against the Chavista regime on 30 July 2024, over the presidential election results that Maduro – proclaimed the winner in a process full of anomalies – refuses to hand over. The regime's response was a strong repression, not only by the armed forces and the police but also by gangs in the service of Chavismo. According to reports from international agencies, there are at least 6 dead and hundreds of detainees (744 according to the regime), in addition to an undetermined number of wounded. Nothing indicates that the regime – which maintains control of the armed forces – is going to give in.

Diosdado Cabello stated in the Chavista Parliament - hand-picked by the regime - that the opposition leaders will be arrested, indirectly alluding to González and Machado. “We are not going to stop, and if they want to provoke us, we will fall for the provocation, but we are going to screw them, we are going to screw them,” said Cabello, considered the toughest man in the regime and with strong ties to Cuba. “Whatever their name is, whatever surname they have, they are going to go to jail.”

Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Parliament and considered the third man closest to Maduro, made a speech full of diatribes against Machado and González, calling them fascists, the regime's favorite epithet against its adversaries. This time he went further, comparing the opposition to Hitler. "With fascism, one cannot have mercy, fascism is not given procedural benefits, with fascism one cannot dialogue, one cannot forgive it," said Rodríguez. “The public ministry has to act, as it is acting, not only against the drug-addicted criminals who are given $40 to terrorize a woman or shoot a young man. Their bosses, those who paid them, have to go to jail. And when I say their bosses, I am not only referring to María Corina Machado, who has to go to jail, but also to Edmundo Gonzáles, because he is the head of the fascist conspiracy.”

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said 07 August 2024 that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) ratified its support for President Nicolas Maduro, whom the National Electoral Council proclaimed as the winner of the 2024 presidential elections.

The opposition posted its ballot count online, which shows Gonzalez receiving double the number of votes as Maduro. In Venezuela, voting machines print out three copies of voting records for the electoral authority, the ruling party and its challenger. "The members of the Unitary Platform (opposition coalition) did not submit any electoral material" to the court, Chief Justice Caryslia Rodriguez told journalists and diplomats 10 August 2024. The judge recalled that the candidate of the main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitarian Platform (PUD), Edmundo González Urrutia, was the only one of the ten candidates who did not appear before the TSJ for this process requested by the re-elected president Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela's supreme court warned that its decision in determining the winner would be final.

Venezuela’s Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, asserted that the so-called “Small Commandos” are implicated in at least 20 murders during the protests led by the far-right after the 2024 presidential elections. In an interview 12 August 2024 on the TV program “Situational Analysis,” Saab provided details about the violent protests called for by far-right leader Maria Corina Machado and former presidential candidate of the Unitary Platform, Edmundo Gonzalez. The Attorney General reported that investigations carried out by his office have gathered sufficient evidence to charge the small commandos with serious crimes, such as murder. “We were able to confirm that organized crime groups, like the Del Llano Train, which supported Gonzalez, said they would take action if the police or security forces repressed the protesters,” Saab said.

On 14 August 2024 the National Electoral Council (CNE) condemned the “Preliminary Report” of the United Nations (UN) Panel of Experts on the Venezuelan presidential electionsAll CNE members emphasized that the UN document is filled with politically motivated lies and contradictions. The Venezuelan electoral authority stated: “The Electoral Power of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela condemns the publication of the so-called ‘Preliminary Report’ of the United Nations panel of experts on the presidential election conducted in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on July 28, 2024. The report is illegal and contrary to the UN principles, violating the terms of reference agreed upon with this Constitutional Power, and, above all, filled with lies and contradictions.... the publication of an alleged ‘report’ was not within their functions and demonstrates the perverse political intent of this dissemination, consisting of fallacious and distorted arguments. According to point 4 of the terms of reference agreed upon between the UN and the CNE on June 29, 2024: ‘The Panel is not an observation mission and, therefore, will not issue any public statement or judgment on the process and/or the outcome of the elections.’"

Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, United Nations, said: “In response to questions about the issuing of the interim report of the Panel of Electoral Experts concerning Venezuela, I would like to recall that the document was made public under the authority of the Secretary-General as a normal procedure in line with our transparency policy.  The Secretary-General reiterates his call for transparency and encourages publication of the election results and a breakdown by polling station. The Panel continues to follow the technical aspects of the coming remaining phases of the electoral process, as per its terms of reference, and will provide a final report to the Secretary-General.”

On 22 August 2024, the Venezuelan Supreme Court issued the final decision on the contentious appeal filed by President Nicolas Maduro regarding the presidential elections held on July 28. Judge Caryslia Rodriguez certified in an unrestricted and unequivocal manner the results of the elections presented by the National Electoral Council (CNE), the highest electoral authority in Venezuela. Rodriguez assured that the CNE results bulletins are consistent with the reports of the electoral machines. Consequently, the Supreme Court ratified that President Nicolas Maduro was reelected as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The United States and 10 Latin American countries issued a joint statement 23 August 2024 rejecting the Venezuela Supreme Court's certification of President Nicolas Maduro's July 28 reelection, widely rejected at home and abroad. the governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and the US called for an “impartial and independent audit” of the vote. They also voiced “profound concern” over human rights violations committed during Maduro’s post-election crackdown, which activists say has resulted in more than 1,600 people being detained and at least 24 others killed.

In a move that could help cement President Nicolas Maduro's disputed presidential reelection, on 03 September 2024 a Venezuelan court allowed for an arrest warrant to be issued against presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia for "serious crimes", despite widespread support for his party's claim that he had won the election.

Rep. MARÍA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee said in a statement that “Maduro needs to get the message from the United States that his blood-stained oil deals are over and that the world will not tolerate him staying in power after the January 10, 2025 inauguration date.” The National Security Council defended its “targeted, calibrated” approach to Venezuela sanctions, saying in a statement that they are “designed to hold Nicolas Maduro and his representatives accountable for its electoral fraud and violent repression, without harming the everyday Venezuelan people.”