Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro suspended access to the social media site X on Thursday, as he faced renewed pressure from a trio of friendly Latin American nations to release data proving his claimed reelection was valid. The president announced his government was blocking the social media platform formerly known as Twitter for 10 days, while accusing the site’s owner Elon Musk of “inciting hate and fascism” in Venezuela.
Election authorities declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 vote but have yet to release detailed results, leading left-wing allies Brazil, Colombia and Mexico on Thursday to reiterate a joint call on the National Electoral Council (CNE) to disclose polling records. Protests sparked last week by the declaration of Maduro’s victory left at least 24 people dead, according to rights groups, with thousands also arrested.
The Venezuelan opposition claims to have won in a landslide and warned Thursday of a potential mass exodus if Maduro is allowed to remain in power. “If Maduro chooses to stay by force, the only thing we will see is a wave of migration like never before: three, four, five million Venezuelans in a very short span of time,” opposition leader Maria Corina Machado — who was barred from running in the election — said in a video conference with Mexican news outlets.
According to the United Nations, more than seven million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million since Maduro took over in 2013, mostly to other Latin American countries and the United States.
Maduro has overseen an unprecedented economic crisis, including an 80 percent drop in the once-wealthy oil-rich country’s GDP, amid domestic economic mismanagement and international sanctions. Washington has spearheaded sanctions against the Maduro regime and on Thursday threatened that further measures would be taken if Maduro were to arrest Machado or Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the retired diplomat who stood as the opposition candidate in the election. “I think that would be a step that could mobilize the international community even more, even those that might be somewhat sympathetic and don’t want to rattle things too much in Venezuela,” Francisco Mora, US ambassador to the Organization of American States, said at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. Machado — who says she fears for her life — and Gonzalez Urrutia have been in hiding for more than a week.