Venezuelans foresaw a new chapter. Then Maduro claimed victory

For a brief moment Sunday, people in the Venezuelan diaspora felt a surge of hope.

NPR's Ari Shapiro drove around Washington D.C. running errands, as the radio played reports showing that the opposition was polling way ahead of authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro's party.

At a stoplight, he pulled up behind a scooter. The driver was flying a Venezuelan flag. She had made a sign saying - "Venezuela is Free today." But her optimism was premature.

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Within a matter of hours, Venezuela's electoral authority declared Maduro the winner.

And members of the opposition have cried foul, with Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez claiming they had 70% of support among voters.

Suspicions of foul play

The opposition's most popular leader, Maria Corina Machado, called the results a gross disregard and violation of popular sovereignty.

"We won and the whole world knows it," she told reporters.

The U.S. and other international observers have questioned the integrity of the elections. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke from Tokyo Sunday night, saying:

"We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people."

Nearly a quarter of Venezuela's population has left the country since Maduro took power 12 years ago.

And even though Venezuela sits on massive oil reserves, the country's economy has imploded in the last decade.

An uncertain future

Many Venezuelans who left their country hoped that this week would mark the start of a new chapter.

Instead, they are left wondering whether the future will be any better than the past.

To Venezuelan journalist and novelist Karina Sainz Borgo, the feeling of intense frustration and loss is nothing new.

"It' a very huge frustration. But at the same time, people are saying, 'It doesn't surprise me' because it's been too many years of frustration," she told NPR.

"It's very difficult to fight against an authoritarian regime. And one of the things [that] was very surprising of this election, [to] many, according to Mercado and Gonzalez candidates, is people really recovered the feeling of, 'It might be possible to have a solution to this [economic crisis.]'"

With those hopes dashed, Sainz Borgo says many are bracing themselves for state violence against protestors who have taken to the streets against Maduro's claims of victory.

"One of the things I really thought in the beginning, was, 'I'm very afraid of a new repressive blow', because it's true that that he did not recognize the elections. But he may also use the force against people, to obligate them to accept that."

Sainz Borgo recalls past violence from 2017 and 2018 against students, and says those memories bring fear to the current moment.