The challenge to the results of the Venezuelan presidential elections announced by the authorities on Sunday is the latest episode in a series of elections that have been questioned by the opposition and part of the international community since Nicolás Maduro came to power in 2013.
Here is the history of the last decade in Venezuelan politics:
Maduro succeeds Chávez in 2013
In April 2013, after the death of socialist President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), Vice President Nicolás Maduro took the lead in the Chavista doctrine and won the presidential elections with 50.62% of the vote.
The opposition leader, Governor Henrique Capriles, narrowly defeated, demanded an audit of the results and appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice, without success.
In 2016, the opposition tried to call a recall referendum, but failed in this objective.
Maduro's first term was marked by waves of violently repressed demonstrations (more than 168 deaths in 2014 and 2017), repression of opponents, increased power of the President and international isolation, with the introduction of US sanctions.
Contested re-election
On 20 May 2018, Nicolás Maduro was re-elected in an early presidential election boycotted by the majority of the opposition. More than 60 countries did not recognise his re-election, including the United States, which imposed an oil embargo on Venezuela in 2019.
On 21 January 2019, 27 military personnel were arrested after they rose up. Maduro accused Washington of having ordered "a fascist coup d'état".
On the 23rd, opposition leader Juan Guaidó, president of the parliament – which the Chavistas lost control of in 2015 – proclaimed himself interim president, and was recognized by around 60 countries, including the United States and Portugal.
At the end of April, a revolt by a group of pro-Guaidó military personnel failed.
Chavismo regains control of parliament
On December 6, 2020, President Nicolás Maduro regained control of the National Assembly in legislative elections marked by a 69% abstention rate and internationally rejected. Most of the opposition called for a boycott.
At the end of 2022, the deeply divided opposition put an end to Juan Guaidó's presidency and interim government. On January 3, 2023, the United States indicated that it still did not consider Nicolás Maduro to be the legitimate president.
Dismissal of the opposition leader
A few months before the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, the charismatic opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the favorite in the polls, was declared ineligible by the government, on charges of corruption.
She was replaced in the short term by a diplomat unknown to the general public, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to face Nicolás Maduro, who is seeking a third six-year term.
Believing that the government was continuing to repress the opposition, Washington announced in April the reintroduction of sanctions on the oil and gas sectors, which had been eased a few months earlier.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela announced that the outgoing President Nicolás Maduro had been re-elected for a third consecutive term with 51.20% of the vote.
Maduro won 5.15 million votes, ahead of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who won just under 4.5 million (44.2%), according to official figures announced by CNE president Elvis Amoroso.
The Venezuelan opposition claimed victory in Sunday's presidential election, with 70% of the vote going to Gonzalez Urrutia, opposition leader María Corina Machado said, refusing to recognize the results announced by the CNE.
Several countries have already congratulated Maduro on his victory, including Nicaragua, Cuba, China and Iran, but others have expressed serious concern about the transparency of the elections in Venezuela, including the United States and the European Union.
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