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Venezuela authorities suspend drive to recall President Nicolás Maduro Venezuelans warn of 'dictatorship' after officials block bid to recall Maduro
(about 4 hours later)
The Venezuelan opposition’s campaign to oust President Nicolás Maduro has been thrown into disarray with elections officials’ decision to suspend a recall drive against the socialist leader a week before it was to start. Venezuela’s government has been accused of “absolute authoritarianism” after officials closed off the last legal avenue for an increasingly restless opposition, raising concerns of fresh unrest against the deeply unpopular president Nicolás Maduro.
In a related move, a court appeared to issue a ruling on Friday blocking key opposition leaders from leaving the country. A ruling on Thursday by election officials closely aligned with the socialist government put the brakes on an attempt to demand a recall referendum against Maduro just days before the opposition was to begin collecting the signatures of 20% of registered voters to force a vote.
With the latest actions, the government has effectively halted the effort to stage a recall referendum that polls suggest Maduro would have lost by a wide margin. The ruling is particularly dramatic because it comes just days before critics of the socialist administration were to start gathering the one-fifth of voters’ signatures needed to place the issue on the ballot. On Friday, a court barred eight key opposition leaders from leaving the country without explanation.
“This is a big deal and reveals that the government was fearful of what could happen in the three-day signature collection period. They have effectively postponed the recall referendum indefinitely. This measure makes it difficult to think of Venezuela as a democracy,” said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. “The government has just killed the only democratic window left,” said Nicmer Evans, a leftist political analyst who is deeply critical of Maduro. “The government went from being a competitive authoritarian (regime) to absolute authoritarianism,” he told the Venezuelan news website Efecto Cocuyo.
Officials cited alleged fraud in a preliminary effort to get 1% of voters’ signatures as justification for blocking the opposition from proceeding to the next stage of the referendum on Maduro’s removal. His critics blame the late president Hugo Chávez’s heir for Venezuela’s economic collapse, bare store shelves and the jailing of opposition leaders. Carolina Acosta, a Venezuelan professor, tweeted: “The government’s striptease is complete. Before us is the horrible figure of dictatorship.”
The opposition immediately blasted the decision as unconstitutional. El striptease del gobierno venezolano está completo. Ante nosotros la horrenda figura de la dictadura. ¿Qué dice la comunidad internacional?
“The government is pushing toward a very dangerous scenario,” former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on Twitter. Hundreds of university students took to the streets of Caracas, the capital, Friday to protest the latest developments, in what may be the only way Venezuelans have left to express their displeasure with the beleaguered government.
Capriles and opposition spokesman Jesús Torrealba on Friday posted a document online that appeared to be from a local court, and barred eight leaders from leaving the embattled South American country without giving a reason. Maduro, the political heir of late President Hugo Chávez, has overseen Venezuela’s downward spiral into severe economic crisis and rampant violence. Street demonstrations have been muted since a 2014 crackdown on weeks-long protests left dozens dead.
The suspension of the recall came as a shock to many Venezuelans, who were gearing up for the chance to sign petitions next week seeking the embattled leader’s removal. To trigger a stay-or-go referendum, the opposition needed to collect and validate some 4m signatures from 20% of the electorate in 24 states over three days next week. The biggest protest so far this year saw millions of Venezuelans take to the streets in Caracas on September 1 in what could be a preview of things to come.
Critics of Venezuela’s 17-year leftwing administration have made the recall their central political issue after being sidelined in congress and in virtually all other public institutions this year. But the campaign had already become mostly symbolic after elections officials in September said no vote would take place this year. “They are playing with fire in terms of social dynamics,” wrote Risa Grais-Targow, director for Latin America of the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy. “The recall referendum had been serving as an official channel through which voters could voice discontent and removing that channel leaves the streets as the only viable mechanism to affect change.”
That timing is crucial. A successful vote to oust Maduro this year would have triggered a presidential election and given the opposition a good shot at winning power. If Maduro is voted out in 2017, though, his vice-president will finish the presidential term, leaving the socialists in charge. Polls show a broad demand for change, with 90% of the population believing that the country is going in the wrong direction, and 76% wanting to see Maduro leave office this year, according to the latest poll from Datanalisis.
The electoral council’s decision on Thursday was in response to rulings earlier in the day by courts in four Venezuelan states that found there was fraud in the initial stage of the petition drive. During that stage the opposition had collected signatures from 1% of electorate. The critical situation in the country gave the opposition coalition, known as MUD, a overwhelming victory in December parliamentary elections, giving many Venezuelans hope of change.
But in standing by those low-court rulings it appeared to be ignoring its own decision in August validating the signatures and allowing the process to move forward. It gave no indication if and when the process would be resumed. But the ruling socialist party and the government have blocked any attempt by the opposition to legislate effectively, earlier this month Maduro circumvented the National Assembly altogether in putting forth the national budget to a chamber of the supreme court rather than the legislature.
“In adherence with the constitution, the National Electoral Council abides by the decisions ordered by the tribunals and has sent instructions to postpone the process of signature gathering until new judicial instructions are known,” it said in a statement. Officials cited alleged fraud in an initial phase of the recall drive when the opposition collected 1% of voters’ signatures as the reason behind blocking the opposition from moving on to the next stage of the referendum on Maduro’s removal, which was to be held next week. Five different lower court’s in different states issued nearly simultaneous rulings Thursday on the fraud charges prompting the electoral council – which had previously certified the signatures – to call the suspension.
Although the government-stacked electoral board had already thrown a number of obstacles in the way of Maduro’s opponents, many had hoped that the next stage of the complex process would have drawn on to the streets millions of Venezuelans who polls show overwhelmingly favor firing Maduro, who they blame for triple-digit inflation and long food lines. “This 1% is deeply stained with fraud and lies,” said Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the commission that reviewed the initial signatures.
The ruling comes on the heels of another decision by the electoral council this week to suspend by about six months gubernatorial elections that were slated for year-end which the opposition was heavily favored to win. Although the recall campaign was not completely cancelled, the indefinite suspension means that a recall vote will be impossible this year, which would have triggered a new presidential election, giving the opposition the possibility of taking power. A recall in 2017 would leave the socialists in power, under Maduro’s vice-president.
Polls say a majority of Venezuelans want Maduro gone. The opposition charges that in the face of overwhelming voter discontent, the socialist party has simply decided to put off elections indefinitely. “The suspension shows that the government is not willing to entertain the idea of regime change at all, even if next year,” said Grais-Targow. “The fear of not being able to control a transition has clearly trumped concerns over a social backlash.”
The opposition staged its largest street demonstration in years on 1 September, with a rally in Caracas demanding a referendum against Maduro be held in 2016. But apart from that protest, most anti-government rallies this year have been relatively small and quick to disperse. The Venezuelan government and security forces are prepared to control any outburst, says David Smilde, with the Washington Office on Latin America. “They are much less tolerant of protest than a couple of years ago,” he says.
Hardline leaders immediately started calling for more massive street protests in the face of the election authority’s ruling. Jesus Torrealba, leader of the opposition coalition known as MUD, said Friday that by closing off the possibility of a recall, the government was seeking one of two reactions: resignation or violence.
“This is the time for national unity,” wrote former congresswoman Maria Corina Machado on her Twitter account. “Every single person must take to the streets, with strength and without fear, to make the transition a reality.” “It wins with both,” he said during an early morning radio address. He called on Venezuelans to abstain from violence but not to give up on seeking Maduro’s ouster.
“We cannot fall into a violent response because that’s what they [the government and its supporters] want. But we also cannot docilely accept what is happening.”