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Venezuela’s opposition warned on Thursday of the possibility of a mass exodus of migrants if President Nicolas Maduro remains in power after a disputed re-election, with the United States calling on the strongman not to arrest protest leaders.
Maduro, meanwhile, announced that the government would block the social media platform X for 10 days, accusing the site’s owner, Elon Musk, of an “attack” on his reelection.
Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election but have yet to release detailed results, leading leftist allies Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to renew a joint call on Thursday for the National Electoral Council (CNE) to disclose voting records.
Venezuela’s opposition has complained about the landslide victory it claims, with official results declaring Maduro the winner, sparking protests that left at least 24 people dead last week, according to human rights groups.
“If Maduro chooses to stay in office by force, we will see unprecedented migration: three, four, five million Venezuelans in a very short time,” opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was barred from participating in the election, said in a video conference with Mexican news media.
More than 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million people since Maduro came to power in 2013, mostly to other Latin American countries and the United States, according to the United Nations.
Maduro has overseen an unprecedented economic crisis that has seen the once-wealthy, oil-rich country’s GDP fall by 80 percent due to domestic economic mismanagement and international sanctions.
Washington has taken the lead in imposing sanctions on Maduro’s regime and threatened on Thursday to take further steps if Maduro arrests opposition leader Machado or Edmundo González Urrutia, a retired diplomat who agreed at the last minute to replace his banned colleague and become a candidate.
“I think this will be a move that could further mobilize the international community, even those countries that might have some sympathy for Venezuela and don’t want to make a big fuss about Venezuela,” Francisco Mora, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States, said at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.
Machado said she feared for her life. She and González Urrutia had been hiding for more than a week.
– ‘International hysteria’ –
The prosecutor’s office has launched a criminal investigation into the two opposition leaders on charges including “usurpation of office, spreading false information, inciting lawlessness, inciting rebellion” and “criminal gang”.
González Urrutia on Wednesday refused to comply with a Supreme Court subpoena over disputed election results, citing concerns that doing so would “endanger” his freedom.
The court summoned all presidential candidates, including Maduro, who is due to appear in court on Friday, as well as other opposition politicians, some of whom did appear for the trial.
The leftist governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico praised the verification process conducted by the courts, but issued statements saying that “they consider first and foremost that the CNE is the body legally mandated to transparently disclose electoral results”.
Critics say the courts and electoral authorities have always been loyal to Maduro, who simply wants the body to “confirm” his victory.
The CNE approved Maduro’s victory with 52% of the vote but did not release detailed results, even claiming it had been hacked.
The opposition has launched a website containing copies of 84% of the ballots, which the government claims were forged, showing González Urrutia winning comfortably with two-thirds of the votes.
The opposition and some observers accused the CNE of carrying out the hack at the behest of the government to avoid publishing the true election results.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez harshly criticized the international community and critics on social media on Thursday, saying, “The international community is panicking about the (election) record, they could even make a Netflix series about it.”
Maduro told a rally of supporters late Thursday that the country’s telecommunications regulator would “stop using” X, formerly known as Twitter. He did not specify what the suspension would entail.
He said: “No one can shut me up, I will fight against the espionage of the tech empire,” and accused American billionaire Musk of “inciting hatred and fascism.”
Jenny Lincoln, head of the Carter Center delegation invited to monitor Venezuela’s election, told AFP the US organization had “no evidence” of a cyber attack.
In addition to the protester deaths, Maduro also announced the deaths of two police officers and more than 2,200 arrests.
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