Tamara Taraciuk Broner, director of the Rule of Law Program, spoke with CNN about what lies ahead for Venezuela’s presidential election, in which Maduro declared victory amid allegations of irregularities, while the opposition disputed the vote count.
COMMENTS FROM TARACIUK BRONER:
“There is no evidence of the results that the government announced, which makes them very difficult to believe. […] This election, despite the fact that it was not clean nor fair, is an opportunity to move forward in a transition to democracy in Venezuela. People massively mobilized to vote, and the vast majority voted for change.”
“[Maduro] will not lose power voluntarily. […] But power is not monolithic in Venezuela. You don’t have everyone aligned behind Maduro, and that opens the door to an opportunity. There are many people in Venezuela within the electoral power, within the judiciary, and within the armed forces that were not blacklisted and will not end up in jail if there is a transition to democracy. These are the people who today have to make a decision.”
“[Colombia and Brazil’s] silence until now is actually a good sign. […] It means that they’re having private conversations with the government of Maduro to explain that they will have no possibility to govern, to have access to markets, and to have access to the legitimacy that they wanted to get out of these elections.”
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