Venezuelan cardinals warn Maduro government may be fabricating election tally sheets

Venezuelan cardinals Diego Padrón and Baltazar Porras. / Credit: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images; Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 7, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Venezuelan cardinals Baltazar Porras and Diego Padrón issued a statement in the form of a letter about the difficult reality facing the country following the July 28 presidential elections, pointing out that there are indications that the Maduro government may be “fabricating” election tallies “accommodating its interests” to supposedly prove that Maduro actually won the election. 

According to sources in the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference to which ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, had access, the letter signed by the cardinals — dated July 31 — was initially addressed to the country’s bishops. Titled “A Fraternal Reflection and in Communion Regarding the National Reality,” the document seeks to be a guide for the bishops to take a position “in accordance with the development of events” and to be able to look to the future to better accompany “a people who feel aggrieved and mocked.”

“The Venezuelan election process did not crystallize in favor of the leader of the ruling party, the current president of the republic,” wrote Porras and Padrón. The people, they commented, “decided on a change in the general orientation of the administration of the government.”

The cardinals denounced the ruling socialist party’s attitude in not wanting to recognize the results and proclaiming Maduro as president-elect “without showing the evidence, which are the vote tallies.” In addition, they rebuked the violent attitude of the regime, which has harshly repressed public demonstrations “to the point of causing some 20 deaths, numerous injuries,” and has indiscriminately arrested 1,000 people.

The Maduro regime, they said, has constructed a narrative tailored to its needs, “blaming the opposition for all the excesses that have their origin in the repression fomented by them.”

An ad hoc coup d’état 

For Porras and Padrón, it is clear that the entrenched ruling party is immersed in the logic of a coup d’état, ready to perpetuate itself in power, without caring about international opinion, which is mostly asking for the publication of the detailed election results that can prove Maduro’s supposed victory.

In addition to accusing the socialist government of buying time to forge the election tallies, the cardinals affirmed that “it is clear that opposition officials and poll watchers have been intimidated to sign them,” although they noted that “there is a conviction” that what the government can do “will not overshadow the already widespread image throughout the world of fraud.”

To counteract the bureaucratic efforts of the regime to ignore and annul the election results, Porras and Padrón said the key will be “staying in tune with the grassroots base, knowledge of the law and the political skill of the opposition sector,” adding that “it will be a fight between David and Goliath!”

The role of bishops in the face of the crisis

“Our role as pastors is, above all, to defend the truth, to feel we are part of the people and to accompany them. We must be and seek to be impartial, living and acting with the truth. We are not and cannot be neutral: It is necessary to carefully verify the facts, to prophetically denounce, even at risk, injustices, and to proclaim our principles and values, accompanying the people in solidarity and pastorally, a task that is not easy but necessary,” the cardinals stated.

“What we cannot do is become another Church of Silence, letting time pass in vain. We must discern in the Spirit the present moment as a ‘kairos’ moment and act accordingly with courage in imitation of the apostles,” they stressed.

Finally, they assured that at this critical time, Venezuelan society is asking the Catholic Church for “a course of action that can only be taken up on a secondary level, of good offices, not as a mediator, nor as a protagonist.”

In recent years, the Church has served as a mediator in various negotiation processes between the socialist government and the opposition. These talks could be called again in the coming days by the regime, according to the cardinals, as a sign of “supposed legitimacy and assuredness.”

“This is unacceptable to us because it would mean ignoring the obvious fraud, the manifest usurpation, and disregarding the unequivocally expressed popular sovereignty, and the consequent right to peacefully, but decisively and firmly, express legitimate protest,” they concluded.

Who are Cardinals Porras and Padrón?

Porras was born in 1944 in Caracas, Venezuela. He was ordained a priest in 1967 and has held important positions within the Catholic Church in Venezuela, such as archbishop of Mérida beginning in 1991 and archbishop of Caracas since 2018 until his resignation in 2024.

In 2016, he was created a cardinal by Pope Francis. He is also an academic and has been named a full member of the National Academy of History of Venezuela. In addition to his pastoral work, he has been president of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference (CEV) (1999–2006) and first vice president of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) from 2007 to 2011.

Padrón was born in Montalbán, Carabobo state (Venezuela), in 1939. He was ordained a priest in 1963 and studied biblical theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He served as auxiliary bishop of Caracas and then as bishop of Maturín before being named archbishop of Cumaná in 2002.

He presided over the CEV for two consecutive terms (2012–2015 and 2015–2018), being a key figure in the peace talks during other moments of political crisis in Venezuela. In September 2023, Pope Francis created him a cardinal, highlighting his role in the universal Church. He is retired.

Other efforts

In addition to the cardinals’ letter, the vice president of the CEV, Bishop Mario Moronta Rodríguez, told Vatican News that the Church not only through the hierarchy but also those involved in lay pastoral ministry “has increased her presence and closeness to the people expressing not only that closeness but also that we are members of the people of God, that we also suffer with our people and hope with our people. We share in our people’s suffering.”

Moronta said that to remedy the situation, “we hope political leaders will feel first of all that they are members of the people. Second, that they not feel like they own democracy, and third, that they use constructive dialogue to strive for the good of democracy, the good of the people.”

The prelate expressed his hope that the crisis will be resolved peacefully, avoiding a worst-case scenario where “violence expands into a social explosion,” noting that “we still have faith that with the help of experts, but above all with the goodwill of political leaders, the will of the people will be heard and put into practice.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.