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A truth that awakens Venezuelans

Two weeks after a rigged election, pro-democracy advocates use their own vote tally to rally for an end to a dictatorship.

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Reuters
A person in Caracas holds a Venezuelan flag during an Aug. 8 vigil for citizens who were detained following disputed election results.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

Last week, some 700 student musicians from 38 countries gathered in New York to celebrate World Orchestra Week. Between rehearsals and concerts, they adorned Carnegie Hall with wishes written on satin ribbons. “Women must have their voice and their dreams,” wrote one from Afghanistan. “May love conquer war,” wrote another from China. 

Such words held special resonance for the musicians from Venezuela. While they sought mastery over Shostakovich, their friends and families back home were seeking freedom from a dictatorship that rigs elections to stay in power.

After the July 28 election, President Nicolás Maduro quickly claimed victory even though the National Electoral Council still has not released the official results. Since then, security forces have arrested more than 2,000 people on vague charges. Opposition leaders remain in hiding.

Observers say Mr. Maduro’s longevity in power depends on maintaining the loyalty of key institutions such as the military and courts. One test will come when the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, Venezuela’s highest court, renders a final ruling on the results.

The opposition, meanwhile, is relying on something it hopes will be more persuasive: the truth. It placed election observers in every polling station to obtain and publish official results as soon as they were tallied. The result shows that the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won nearly 70% of the vote.

Mr. González and other members of the opposition have called on Venezuelans to join in mass protests for the “truth” on Aug. 17. “Demanding respect for our constitution is not a crime, demonstrating peacefully to uphold the will of millions of Venezuelans is not a crime,” he wrote in a statement posted on the social media platform X.

That appeal relies on Venezuelans coming together as one to realize the power of truth to defeat a lie. As the student musicians in New York displayed, the truest pitch of Venezuelan democracy lies in the harmony of its citizens.

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