MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro celebrates victory from Miraflores Palace

Maduro demanded that the will of the Venezuelan people be respected

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro greeted his followers from Caracas' Miraflores Palace to celebrate victory after the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that he had defeated opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. According to CNE Chairman Elvis Amoroso, Maduro collected 51.2% of the vote, against his rival's 44.2% with 80% of the vote counted.

In his victory speech, Maduro demanded that “the will of the people” be respected. ”I respect the Venezuelan Constitution, the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people, you have to see which country in the world after receiving 930 criminal sanctions, after suffering, the country dares to call elections. We called them, we carried them out in an exemplary manner (...) I am Nicolás Maduro Moros, the re-elected president of Venezuela,” he stressed.

Under Maduro, who has been in office since 2013, Venezuela went through a severe economic crisis, domestic political turmoil, and international sanctions, with the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita falling from US$ 8,692 that year to US$ 3,659 in 2023. A slight recovery of up to US$ 3,867 is projected for 2024.

Maduro also spoke about the alleged hacking of the vote counting mechanism, which he claimed was perpetrated by a country that he refused to mention although “everybody knows.” That glitch was why the results were announced so late after voting closed at 6 pm local time, he argued.

Amoroso, who said Maduro had received 5,150,092 votes, also noted that Attorney General Tarek William Saab had been entrusted with investigating the cyber attack.

Presidents Javier Milei of Argentina and Gabriel Boric Font of Chile warned that their countries would not validate the results announced in Caracas where Maduro was said to have been reelected for the 2025-2031 term. Boric warned Chile's objection to any “unverifiable” announcement while Milei insisted that Buenos Aires would be against another “fraud.”

“Maduro's regime must understand that the results it publishes are hard to believe,” Boric posted on X. “The international community and above all the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand total transparency of the minutes and the process, and that international observers not committed to the government account for the veracity of the results,” he added. “From Chile, we will not recognize any result that is not verifiable.”

Meanwhile, Milei insisted that “the citizens of that country ”chose to put an end to the communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.“

”The data announce an overwhelming victory for the opposition and the world is waiting for it to recognize the defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence, and death,“ Milei warned before Amoroso's announcement. The Libertarian leader also wished the Bolivarian Armed Forces would this time ”defend democracy and the will of the people.”