Maduro's Tightening Grip

What’s happening in Venezuela? Following Venezuela’s presidential election a week and a half ago, President Nicolás Maduro’s camp—which the opposition says was squarely defeated, a fact backed up by substantial documentation—has yet to release the results it promised to prove its claimed “victory.”

“At CNN’s request, several experts analyzed the results offered by both the government-aligned National Electoral Council of Venezuela (CNE) and the opposition platform Comando Con Venezuela,” reports the outlet. “The experts conclude that the numbers that appear to portray Maduro as the winner are statistically improbable. Data released by the team of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia match ‘mathematically and statistically,’ the experts say.” (This point was also made by guests Daniel Di Martino and César Báez on an episode of my show, Just Asking Questions, that will be released next week.)

In response to his defeat, Maduro has not only refused to release the results his team promised but has also ordered internet providers to block access to X for the next 10 days. Venezuelan activists who want the rest of the world to see Maduro’s profound corruption, are issuing messages of resistance: “Use X. Download VPN. Share posts on X. Communicate on Whatsapp. Don’t leave chats,” writes journalist Orlando Avendaño (in Spanish) on X. “Let us overcome the totalitarian siege. Today more than ever, to succeed, it is essential to be informed.”

Maduro is also rounding up journalists, activists, and politicians who oppose him. (A tactic he has used before.) María Oropeza, an organizer for the opposition campaign, was detained on Tuesday. Venezuela’s Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar, or its counterintelligence military agency, posted a menacing video to its official Instagram showing Oropeza being rounded up and thrown in prison. Her mother, meanwhile, is pleading for information about her daughter’s location.

She’s not the only one. Opponents of the regime keep getting disappeared. Over 22 people have been killed so far in demonstrations since the election results were announced, and an estimated 2,000 people have been jailed.

Yet some leftists in the West keep covering for Maduro, even as the regime shows exactly who they are and the extent to which they will go to remain in power—even when that contradicts the overwhelming will of the people. Eighty-one percent of voters made their way to the polls, possibly emboldened by hopes that the opposition could be successful in unseating the tyrant Maduro.

Scenes from New York: I woke up mad about rent control.

Can you imagine paying $87.25 per month for rent, while the apartments above/below you go for $3,800, $4,800, & $5,200 (for the very top floor)? This is a particularly egregious example, but holy shit. New York’s rent control laws are a BIG part of why this city is so expensive. https://t.co/QkJgwxHviE

— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) August 9, 2024

• One big ask for regular readers of Roundup: Please give my show, cohosted with Zach Weissmueller, a watch/listen. It can be on your morning commute. It can be while you’re vacuuming your house. It can be while you’re suffering through a run. We’re really proud of our most recent episode with Nate Silver, the guy who founded FiveThirtyEight and just wrote On the Edge, a book about risk-taking in all its forms. Also: send me a DM with guest suggestions, if you have ‘em. We live to serve.

• “Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid signaled he’s not ready to support a reduction in interest rates with inflation above target and the labor market still healthy despite some cooling,” reports Bloomberg.
• Cringe political headlines from The New York Times: “Harris Used to Worry About Laughing. Now Joy Is Fueling Her Campaign.”
• “Retailers are fueling a summer rush of imports to the United States this year as companies guard against a potential strike by port workers and ongoing shipping disruptions from attacks in the Red Sea ahead of a shortened holiday shopping season,” reports Reuters.
• A public middle school in El Paso, Texas, has chosen to ban wearing all-black clothing, saying that it is “associated with depression and mental health issues.”
• Yes:

Do people who tweet like this prefer to live in a monarchy? I wouldn’t find these tweets odd in Syria or Saudi Arabia. Kind of odd in a country born on dissent and debate. https://t.co/xrbn630UVR

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) August 9, 2024

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