Caracas Chronicles

It is the first time that my mom—who has a motor disability – is in a voting center after 6:00 in the evening. My family waited at home in all previous electoral processes. Now, however, family and friends are sending photos from outside the voting stations in Guayana City, in southern Venezuela. All of them are going to watch the vote count.

In Puerto Ordaz, the industrial city of Bolivar state, journalists from Correo del Caroni report that people are present in most of the voting centers. In Villa Colombia, a former chavista stronghold, dozens of citizens sing the national anthem to pressure to be allowed entrance and witness the counting process, which should be public by law. 

The same happened in San Felix, at the Juan Jose Cardoza school, in Manoa, where more than a hundred people shouted outside the voting center: “I don’t want a bonus, I don’t want CLAP; what I want is for Nicolas to leave,” as seen in a video published by journalist Thais Belo. 

Unlike other electoral processes, the massive presence of voters in the counting process is a phenomenon to be highlighted. In the past, only party-based teams were responsible for this task. And voter turnout in San Felix was close to 60%.

On the border with Brazil

In Santa Elena de Uairen, on the border with Brazil, journalist Morelia Morillo, a member of the Network of Journalists of the Venezuelan Amazon, reports that all voting centers closed at 6:00 in the evening. 

The biggest problem now, she says, is that witnesses can enter the facilities. “In Juan de Jorges, a voting center and also the CNE headquarters, they are not allowing people to enter, and there are well over 150 waiting at the door. They promised to give the minutes to the opposition witnesses, but they didn’t let the community in.” 

Santa Elena de Uairén was militarized in 2019 after the Kumarakapay massacre, and around 1,000 Pemón indigenous people fled and took refuge in Tarao Parú, a Brazilian indigenous community. The local government also had to flee.

Amazonas and Delta Amacuro

“The day began with delays, delays never seen before. Voting centers that in the past took at most half an hour to open took two and three hours”, said Simeón Rojas, one of the journalists who are part of the Network of Journalists of the Venezuelan Amazon, based in Puerto Ayacucho. 

In the voting center of the Indigenous community, the Piapoco people in the Atures municipality, voters began to vote after 2:00 p.m. 

The voting centers closed at 6:00 p.m., and “ in many, if not all of them, they did not allow the citizen verification to enter.” 

Also, in Tucupita, the capital of Delta Amacuro state, the delay in opening the 195 voting centers was a marked feature. Dailys Estrada, a reporter in Tucupita, pointed out that after 8:00 p.m., “there is a lot of tension in some centers, not in all of them. The opposition is considered the winner.” 

In the Mining Arc

In El Callao, the heart of the mining area, news spread that Edmundo Gonzalez had won, and the colectivos took to the streets to violently force people to go home.  In Tumeremo, another mining town, people are celebrating González’s victory on the street. A colectivo group, 3R, which controls mines in that area, published a message on Whatsapp inviting people to “remain calm, especially here in our town of Tumeremo, let’s respect people no matter their political allegiance, remember we live in a country with freedom of speech.” According to a local journalist, who is part of Red Amazonía, colectivos tried to kidnap Eudis Perroni, an opposition representative, but the community avoided it.