Maduro urges iron fist as protest toll mounts
Caracas: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro called for the state to use an “iron fist” after deadly protests in response to his July re-election, which has been dismissed at home and abroad as a sham.
As the official protest death toll rose to 25, Maduro on Monday urged “severe justice” for violence he blames on the opposition, which insists its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had won the July 28 vote by a landslide.
“I demand from all the powers of state greater speed, greater efficiency and an iron fist against crime, against violence, against hate crimes,” the socialist leader told a defence council meeting.
Widespread protests broke out after Maduro was declared re-elected by the CNE electoral council seen as loyal to his regime.
Observers reported a brutal security force crackdown with more than 2,000 arrests.
Maduro, in turn, blames Gonzalez Urrutia and popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado – who was ruled out of running for the presidency by institutions aligned to the state.
Both leaders have gone into hiding, citing fears for their lives and threats of arrest.
The CNE declared Maduro the victor within hours of polls closing, giving him 52% of ballots cast. It did not provide a detailed breakdown.
The opposition says its own tally of polling-station-level results showed Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, had won more than two-thirds of votes.
Several Western and Latin American states have rejected Maduro’s claimed victory.
At Monday’s meeting, regimealigned Attorney General Tarek William Saab said two national guard members were among 25 people to have died in protests in the two days following the vote.
Maduro has accused the opposition leadership of encouraging a coup d’etat against him, and of fomenting a “civil war situation” he said has been neutralised.
Maduro’s previous re-election, in 2018, was rejected by dozens of countries, including the United States and EU members.
But years of damaging sanctions failed to dislodge the president, who enjoys loyalty from the military leadership and state institutions, as well as Russia, China and Cuba.