The Latest: Venezuela chooses between another presidential term for Maduro or a big change

Venezuelans are choosing whether to give another six years to President Nicolás Maduro and extend the policies that have caused the world’s worst peacetime economic collapse, or whether to go with his last-minute opponent, retired diplomat Edmundo González.

Around 17 million people are eligible to vote.

González is representing a coalition of opposition parties after being selected in April as a stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice. For once, the opposition factions have managed to unite behind a single candidate.

Here’s the latest:

CARACAS, Venezuela — Polls have opened in Venezuela, where 17 million voters must choose between handing the increasingly authoritarian Nicolás Maduro a third presidential term or throwing their support behind an unknown newcomer promising to end 25 years of single-party rule.

Retired diplomat Edmundo González is the only opponent on the ballot who represents a real threat to Maduro’s hold on power.

The opposition boycotted the 2018 presidential election, allowing Maduro to coast to victory at a time of hyperinflation and widespread shortages.

Although electoral conditions have barely improved, it is competing this time because it believes widespread anger with Maduro’s mismanagement of the economy will ensure his defeat. The last time it went to polls as a unified front, in the 2015 parliamentary elections, it trounced the ruling socialist party.

CARACAS, Venezuela —The opposition candidate Edmundo González expressed his satisfaction with the massive presence of Venezuelans lined up since late Saturday night and Sunday morning at voting centers.

“Today more than ever Venezuelans are demonstrating that we are one people. What we see are lines of joy and hope. Today begins a day of reconciliation for all Venezuelans,” said González, surrounded by journalists, shortly after casting his vote.

“The democratic spirit of Venezuelans is more alive than ever, it’s time for change,” added the ex-diplomat. If victorious, Gonzalez promised to create conditions for the almost 8 million Venezuelans to return to their home country after fleeing compounding crises.

“We do not want more Venezuelans leaving the country, and for those who have left I tell them we will do everything possible for them to come back and welcome them with open arms,” he said.“To all the Venezuelans around the world, your strength and commitment encourages us. We are one people in search of freedom,” he added.– Jorge Rueda

CARACAS, Venezuela — Maria Gabriela Chavez, one of the late president’s daughters, commented as she cast her ballot in a school classroom under the watchful gaze of Chavez’s face painted on the wall.

“Tenemos que ganar,” she told AP of the advice her father would likely have given had he been alive today.

Sunday’s vote is being held on what would’ve been the 70th birthday of Chavez, who died in 2013 of cancer.

Chavez said she agreed with the decision, which seeks to stir admiration for her father’s legacy and give Maduro, his handpicked political heir, a possible boost in a tight race.

“Siempre mezclamos la familia con política,” said Chávez, who nonetheless plans to lay a wreath at her father’s tomb in a hilltop army fort later Sunday

CARACAS, Venezuela —Judy Oropeza says when her sister died in 2019 she vowed never again to vote for the government that long employed her as a school teacher.

It was the nadir of Venezuela’s economic crisis and due to widespread shortages, Oropeza’s sister couldn’t find the medicine she needed to treat hypertension.

Oropeza was in Colombia trying to find work because her miserly wages weren’t enough to feed her and her son. “I came home to bury her practically,” she said, holding back tears.

Today, sitting quietly on a bench in Caracas’ iconic Plaza Bolivar, she acknowledges things have improved.

But she abandoned the profession she loved to escape hunger and still has to watch every penny of her $160 month in salary in the private sector.“There’s peace now,” she says as a street sweeper collects the fallen leaves from the marble floor. “But there’s wounds that never heal. That’s why I vote for change.”

– Joshua Goodman

CARACAS, Venezuela — Key to Maduro’s chances Sunday is the strength of the ruling party’s ability to mobilize its base.

One strategy, known as 1 x 10, asks each Maduro supporter to recruit 10 of their friends and family members.

Asked Sunday about those efforts to boost turnout, Maduro campaign chief Jorge Rodríguez said “our machine is well-oiled.”

–Joshua Goodman

CARACAS, Venezuela —Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of the former president—one last effort by the ruling socialist party to gain an edge in the hard-fought electoral battle.

The former president and revered leftist firebrand died of cancer in 2013, leaving Maduro as his political heir.

In the January 23 poor hillside neighborhood where a mausoleum holds Chavez’s remains, supporters shared a cake celebrating the birthday.

–Joshua Goodman

The President of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council Elvis Amoroso says that 95% of of voting centers across the country are open.

The council set up 30,026 voting machines for the election.

Amoroso said Sunday he and other electoral authorities had a “clear conscience” about the work they were carrying out.

He said 100% of polling place workers were present at voting centers from the time they opened at 6 a.m.

–Jorge Rueda

CARACAS, Venezuela — In the working-class Petare neighborhood on the east side of Caracas, people lined up to vote hours before polls opened.

Judith Cantilla, a 52-year-old domestic worker said, “In the name of God, everything is going to turn out alright. Each person is going take their position and well, (it’s time for) change for Venezuela.”

She said the people were tired and that change for Venezuela is for more jobs, security, medicine in hospitals and better pay for teachers and doctors.

Elsewhere, Liana Ibarra, a manicurist in greater Caracas, got in line at 3 a.m. Sunday and found at least 150 people ahead of her.

The 35-year-old Ibarra said her aunt wrote to her from the U.S. at 2 a.m. to see if she was already in line.

With her backpack next to her loaded with water, coffee and cassava snacks, Ibarra said there used to be a lot of indifference toward elections, “but not anymore.”

Her mom’s 11 siblings have all migrated. She has not followed them, she said, because her 5-year-old son has special needs. But if González does not win, she will ask her relatives to sponsor her and her son’s application to migrate to the U.S. legally.

“We can’t take it anymore,” she said.

— Fabiola Sánchez and Regina García Cano

CARACAS, Venezuela — At least eight party representatives authorized by the National Electoral Council to provide oversight at the country’s largest voting center in the capital Caracas were being denied access more than an hour after polls were supposed to open.

Police officers linked arms around the door as the representatives showed their printed certificates that should give them access.

Marisol Contreras, 58, chief party representative for the Unitary Platform, said she arrived at 4 a.m. and was told she couldn’t go in to the elementary school.

People affiliated with the government stood at the door and indicated to them that all the necessary personnel were already inside.

Marlyn Hernandez, the voting center coordinator, said she didn’t know why the authorized representatives were not being allowed in to the school where more than 11,000 people are registered to vote. The center opened 90 minutes late.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Incumbent President Nicolás Maduro says he will recognize the result of the presidential election and urged other candidates to publicly declare the same.

Maduro said after voting Sunday that “no one is going to create chaos in Venezuela.” He said “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements” and that he would make sure the result is recognized.

He called on the other nine candidates “to respect, to make respected and to declare publicly that they will respect the official announcement” of the winner.

TOKYO, Japan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Venezuelans deserve an election “that genuinely reflects their will, free from manipulation.”

Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo Sunday, Blinken said the U.S. will not prejudice the election’s outcome and that the international community will be “watching closely” while urging all parties to “honor their commitments and respect democratic process.”

Blinken said despite facing severe repression, Venezuelans are showing “enormous enthusiasm” for the election.

He said the U.S. and the international community have championed the Barbados electoral roadmap agreement to restore political freedoms in Venezuela,” even though Maduro and his representatives s have fallen short on many of those commitments.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition supporters greeted presidential candidate Daniel Ceballos with shouts of “Get out! Get out! Get out! Traitor!” as he arrived to vote at a school in downtown Caracas.

Ceballos was a leader of anti-Maduro protests in 2014 calling for the president’s resignation less than a year after his election. He was imprisoned for his actions.

Ceballos lost some of his edge after he emerged from jail years later. Most recently, he surprised friend and foe alike by registering to run against Maduro with a rhetoric critical of the main opposition coalition which considers him a sell-out and a patsy for Maduro’s efforts to stay in power.

–Joshua Goodman

Clarisa Machado voted for Maduro in the working-class Caracas neighborhood of Petare.

The 74-year-old sociologist felt confident that the experience the government gained over years of crisis would make it better able to deal with difficult situations still to come, as well as improve Venezuelans’ standard of living.

“We Venezuelans, when they knock us down, we get back up and that serves as experience to not fall down again,” she said.

–Jorge Rueda