César Báez and Daniel Di Martino: What Happened in Venezuela’s Election?

Reason Podcasts

What's really happening in Venezuela? Nicolás Maduro claimed victory in Venezuela's presidential election last month, but much of the rest of the world isn't buying it. Neither are many Venezuelans, who've taken to the streets to protest what they say is a fraudulent election in the face of increasingly violent crackdowns and menacing threats from the Maduro regime. The opposition says its tallies show it won 67 percent of the vote. Official statements from the European Union and U.S. State Department each say the evidence shows Maduro lost. Argentina's Javier Milei posted to X minutes after the polls closed: "Argentina is not going to recognize another fraud, and hopes that the Armed Forces this time will defend democracy and the popular will." To help us understand how Venezuela ended up here and what might happen next, we've brought on two of our trusted Venezuelan analysts, Daniel Di Martino and César Báez. Di Martino is a Venezuelan-American who founded the Dissident Project and is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Báez is a producer at Reason, and he writes about liberty in Latin America on his Substack, Espacio de Libertad. Sources referenced in this conversation: Venezuelan presidential race results as tabulated from digital records by the opposition party Milei calls for the ousting of Maduro on X Opposition party leader María Corina Machado's post-election message "for the future of the Republic" U.S. State Department: "Assessing the Results of Venezuela's Presidential Election" The New York Times says that Venezuela suffers from "brutal capitalism" Daniel Di Martino: "How Socialism Destroyed Venezuela" The E.U.'s statement on Venezuela's election