Protests followed the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election on 28 July, in response to voter fraud and other irregularities during the election cycle, as part of the 2024 Venezuelan political crisis. The election and unrest occurred in the context of the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.
Statistical analyses by multiple organizations indicated that the election was won convincingly by Edmundo Gonzalez but those results have not been recognized by incumbent Nicolás Maduro; the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), an alliance of opposition parties, released vote tallies at the precinct level indicating that González won by a wide margin, while the government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) announced an unsubstantiated result, without any precinct-level tallies, stating Maduro won. Both candidates claimed victory, while many countries recognized González as the winner.
Demonstrations to uphold the results of the election, along with vigils for political prisoners, occurred worldwide after the July election. Spontaneous protests broke out immediately after the election, while later rallies were organized by the Venezuelan opposition; Maduro claimed the opposition was encouraging a coup and has charged demonstraters with terrorism, while initiating an unprecedented crackdown. Maduro's security forces have gone door-to-door seeking to arrest protesters, poll workers and members of the opposition in what Maduro has referred to as Operation Tun Tun, and armed bands of Maduro supporters known as colectivos have joined security forces in repressing dissent. As of 14 August 2024, at least 2,200 persons are reported to have been arrested, and 25 killed; Maduro has announced plans to continue to seek the arrest of dissenters, and to rehabilitate two prisons to house those detained.
The repression has been widely condemned by international groups; Amnesty International penned an open letter requesting urgent action from the International Criminal Court (ICC), on the basis of an ongoing ICC investigation of possible crimes against humanity under Maduro's regime.
Background
The election and protests occurred amid the Venezuelan crisis – ongoing since 2010 – which resulted in the largest peacetime exodus in history culminating in 7.7 million refugees in the Venezuelan diaspora from the Venezuelan refugee crisis according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Following Elvis Amoroso's statements from the CNE claiming Maduro's victory in the early hours of 29 July, the majority opposition—organized around María Corina Machado and the Democratic Unitary Platform candidate, Edmundo González—and many countries denounced electoral fraud and have either recognized Gonzalez as president-elect or at a minimum called for audits.
Machado stated that the PUD had obtained voter tally sheets that showed González winning in a landslide. After forensic examination of substantive evidence given by the Venezuelan opposition, according to a CNN report, a Maduro victory was considered a "statistical improbability" by statisticians and political scientists. The U.S. and several Latin American governments recognized Edmundo González as the winner.
Chronology
During the month of July, the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS: Observatorio Venezolano de Conflictividad Social) documented 1,311 protests throughout Venezuela; 70% were on 29 or 30 July. OVCS said most of the protests occurred in poor areas, and involved "harassment, arbitrary arrests, threats and political retaliation against leaders and sympathizers of opposition political parties".
2024
28 July: Election day
On 28 July 2024, the day of the election, Venezuelans in the Brazilian cities, Pacaraima, Boa Vista, and São Paulo, demonstrated against Maduro. In São Paulo, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants participated in a demonstration in defense of democracy and calling for freedom. On the same day, Julio Valerio García, a citizen of Táchira, was shot dead by a group of motorcyclists. There were also four injured that day.
Neither Machado nor González called for protests, but instead asked people to be present at the voting centers until they had records of the votes cast.
On 28 July, which would have been the 70th birthday of Hugo Chávez, nine statues of him were brought down by protesters.
29 July: After government announcement of results
On 29 July, there were cacerolazos (pot banging as a form of protest) throughout Caracas. The protests began around noon; in Caracas, demonstrations were reported in Isaías Medina Angarita in Catia, Ruperto Lugo and Ruiz Pineda, as well as on the Caracas-La Guaira highway; in Aragua, they were reported in Cagua; in a sector of the state of Falcón, people also took to the streets.
Protests were reported in various popular areas of the capital, especially in several sectors of Petare such as the San Blas or La Dolorita neighborhoods. A strong police presence was also reported in the capital.
Public demonstrations against Venezuela's government were registered in several foreign cities that have a strong presence of Venezuelan refugees.
In Margarita Island, hundreds of civilians occupied 4 de Mayo Avenue in Porlamar, tearing down Maduro's political banners. The Bolivarian National Police and the National Guard approached the site to repress the protesters. Protests continued on La Auyama Avenue as protesters tried to tear down a statue of Hugo Chávez before being intercepted again by national officials, who fired pellets and tear gas. The protesters responded with stones, sticks and Molotov cocktails.
Maduro campaign posters were torn down throughout the country. In Coro, some protesters tore down a statue which depicted the late president Hugo Chávez. The toppling of statues of Chávez trended nationwide, as numerous Bolivarian propaganda posters and murals were torn down in other cities and towns and numerous other statues were torn down across the country. The Caracas–La Guaira highway was blocked by protesters from the El Limón sector.
Europa Press reported protests in Petare, Altamira, Chacaíto, Bellas Artes, La Vega, El Valle, Catia, and La Candelaria, as well as concentrations on the Petare–Guarenas highway, specifically in the parish of Caucagüita in the Sucre Municipality, Miranda state.
Maduro blamed the comanditos (civilian opposition groups) for the protests of 29 July, threatening to jail them, and accused the United States of organizing the protests, with no evidence to support his claim. He called for all Chavistas to go out to the streets on the morning of 30 July, in all states and cities of the country, to "defend peace".
According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS), 183 protests were recorded in 20 of the 23 states, and in some of them 5 statues of Hugo Chávez were torn down or destroyed.
During the 29 July protests, 2 people were killed (including a 15-year-old boy), 7 protesters were injured, and there were 3 unconfirmed gunshot-related deaths. The Penal Forum issued a report where it counted 6 dead (among them a minor of 15 years of age), 132 wounded, 50 detained in different sectors of the country and three unconfirmed deaths by gunshots.
30 July: Mobilization to the United Nations offices
The Unitary Platform called for a people's mobilization in front of the United Nations Development Programme office in Caracas to defend their election victory and where both Machado and González addressed the gathering. Citizen assemblies were held in other cities, including Barquisimeto, Valencia, Maracay, San Fernando de Apure, and Los Teques.
Machado and González, from the demonstration in Los Palos Grandes, Caracas, announced that they had recovered and digitalized 80% of the vote tallies.
The Venezuelan National Guard dispersed the attendees with tear gas bombs. Colectivos joined state security agencies in the repression against protesters. In Punto Fijo, protesters set fire to the Carirubana mayor's office and the PSUV regional headquarters at midnight. On the same night, armed militia group Tren del Llano was reported to be involved in a gun fight with the police, military, and the Colectivos in Valle de la Pascua, Guarico state.
Protests continued in different parts of the country. The Venezuelan Armed Forces expressed "absolute loyalty and unconditional support" to Nicolás Maduro, according to the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, general-in-chief and ally of Chavismo, Vladimir Padrino López. Until late at night, clashes with firearms between military, police and colectivos, against civilians and armed groups in Petare were reported. By 30 July, a total of 12 people had died and more than 750 were arrested.
31 July: Detainees increase
Maduro filed an appeal for constitutional protection before the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), with the intention of legitimizing the election results in his favor. This action has been strongly criticized by the opposition, amid growing tensions and widespread condemnation of electoral fraud by the national and international community. Likewise, the TSJ has been criticized for its lack of independence and its closeness to the Maduro regime.
Tarek William Saab announced at a press conference that the number of detainees rose to 1,062, calling opposition protesters "terrorists." He also stated the possibility of requesting an arrest warrant against "intellectual authors" in the demonstrations. The attorney general stated that protesters have simulated "punishable acts" during the protests and declared that the wounds are simulated with "ketchup" by the protesters themselves.
1–8 August: Machado in hiding
On 1 August, Machado published a letter in The Wall Street Journal, stating that she had gone in to hiding "fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro"; in the letter, she laid out the evidence she said she had from the vote tallies supporting PUD's win, and stated that Maduro had expelled witnesses from the polls, while the witnesses "protected the voter receipts with their lives throughout the night" of the elections.
The Unitary Platform called for a display of support for the election result by families throughout the country despite repression and arrests of demonstrators.
Machado came out of hiding to appear at the demonstration in Las Mercedes, Caracas on 3 August. Demonstrations were held in other cities throughout Venezuela and abroad in Madrid, Miami, Bogotá, and Buenos Aires.
On the same date, international hacker group Anonymous declared cyberwarfare against the Venezuelan government. It was reported that the group had hacked 325 government sites in one day as well as launching a doxing campaign against Chavista officials. Among the hacked websites, Anonymous infiltrated the website of the presidency and Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas (CICPC) along with a database that belonged to the PSUV.
The Unitary Platform called for a candlelight vigil at the Plaza Los Palos Grandes in Chacao, Miranda on 8 August to demand the release of political prisoners who have been detained since 28 July.
17 August: Great World Protest for the Truth
Within Venezuela and in cities across the world, Venezuelans demonstrated on 17 August in support of the opposition's claim to González's election win. Machado had called for the rally—the Great World Protest for the Truth (Gran Protesta Mundial por la Verdad)—to demonstrate "respect for popular sovereignty" and reinforce the 28 July victory.
In Caracas, the opposition demonstration was centered near Petare, in front of the Centro Comercial Lider mall in the El Marqués urbanization. AFP reported that, early in the day, a "heavy security presence was taking shape" and that "two National Guard armored vehicles backed by about 40 motorcycle-mounted troops" were controlling access to Petare. NTN24 wrote that Petare, once a "Chavista bastion" that had become a neighborhood of "fierce" resistance to the government-announced election results, had been "militarized" to prevent the demonstrations that had emanated from Petare on 30 July, and that similar military presence was evident in other areas of Caracas.
Elsewhere in Venezuela, tear gas was used early in the day to disperse demonstrations in Maracay. In Zulia, witnesses reported that priest Elvis Cabarca was detained while leading a group praying the Rosary within a chapel. Hundreds of people protested in Barquisimeto, Maracaibo, San Cristóbal and Valencia.
Demonstrators in Caracas chanted "we are not afraid!" in response to Maduro's crackdown on dissent, Operation Tun Tun, with mass arrests that generated fear. A 52-year-old protestor told Reuters: "We have already been through the worst, we don't have any more fear. My daughter died because there were no medical supplies in the university hospital. I have nothing to lose, but I want a future for my grandchildren."
Under Maduro's threat to arrest opposition leaders, Machado came out of hiding, and stated on X, "Now comes a new stage. We have to stand firm and united. They try to scare us, to divide us, to paralyze us, but they cannot."
With more than 7.7 million Venezuelans residing abroad, the protests aimed to "mobilize ... supporters worldwide" and gain recognition of the election in other countries in support of González and against Maduro. Demonstrators in countries outside of Venezuela sought also to support Venezuelans within the country who feared "speaking against Maduro and his allies during a brutal repression campaign", according to the Associated Press.