The United States has expressed serious concerns about the recent arrests of Venezuelan democratic opposition figures ahead of the country’s elections scheduled for later this month. This comes as authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro has warned his supporters that a victory is essential to avoid a potential “bloodbath.”
Maduro stated at a campaign event in Caracas on Tuesday, “If they do not want Venezuela to fall into a bloodbath, into a fratricidal civil war, the ruling party must win the presidential elections on July 28.” He emphasized that only a win for his party would ensure “peace” in the country and anticipates “irreversible results” in his favor.
CNN has reached out to Maduro’s office for further comment on his statements.
Maduro’s remarks come as his government seeks to maintain power for another six years while facing a strong challenge from opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. Experts believe the opposition has a real chance of unseating Maduro.
In the lead-up to the vote, the US State Department has reported that Venezuela has “unjustly detained” democratic opposition figures, civil society members, and journalists. The department called for their immediate release in a statement issued Wednesday.
Maduro, who has been in power for over a decade since succeeding Hugo Chavez in 2013, has frequently been accused of rigging elections and suppressing the opposition. The 2018 election that returned him to office was largely boycotted by the opposition and labeled illegitimate by an alliance of 14 Latin American nations, Canada, the United States, and the Organization of American States.
There were hopes that the 2024 election might be different after Maduro promised Washington last year in a historic agreement to hold free and fair elections in exchange for sanctions relief. However, the opposition has recently accused him of reneging on that pledge. Two opposition candidates, Maria Corina Machado and Corina Yoris, have been barred from running, and a human rights group report suggested there had been a spate of “arbitrary detentions” since the beginning of the campaign season on July 4.
Human rights NGO Laboratorio de Paz reported Monday that there had been 71 arbitrary detentions in the first 10 days of campaigning, mostly involving individuals who had provided some type of service to the campaign of opposition candidate González of the Democratic Unitary Platform.
Two days after Laboratorio’s report, barred opposition leader Machado claimed in a post on X that her security chief, Milciades Ávila, had been “kidnapped” by the Maduro regime and accused of gender violence against some women. Machado asserted that the accusations were a provocation to undermine her campaign.
CNN has reached out to Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office for comment on Ávila’s arrest and to determine whether he has legal representation.
The US has expressed concern over Ávila’s arrest and called for his immediate release. A State Department spokesperson urged Venezuela to release all those “unjustly detained” during the presidential election campaign.
In a joint statement released Wednesday by the Alliance for Development in Democracy, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Panama called on Venezuelan authorities to ensure that the elections are “free, fair, and transparent.”
Maduro is one of 10 candidates vying for the presidency, though several candidates have minimal support and are viewed by the main opposition as government allies.
