Venezuelans protest in Houston against Maduro’s election victory

HOUSTON — Protests have taken place in several Venezuelan cities after authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of the country’s presidential election.

The vote was marred by numerous allegations of irregularities. Dozens of Venezuelans also took to the streets in Houston to express their frustration.

“He is stealing the election. This is massive fraud. We are not going to let this happen again,” Javier Avila said.

Protesters in the Galleria and Sugar Land neighborhoods were angry at President Maduro, who claimed victory in Sunday’s election.

Maduro has been in power for 11 years, after the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez, and these Houstonians support opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez. They say Gonzalez won the election by a landslide.

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“The reality is that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia gets more than 70 percent of the vote,” said Jorge Marquez, another protester.

“Maduro realized he was losing the election and stopped the vote counting process and then declared victory,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.

Jones said Maduro was quickly supported by allies like China, Russia and Iran, making it difficult for the United States to intervene.

“It will be difficult for the United States to do anything other than apply gentle pressure to remove Maduro. The United States has sought to apply gentle pressure to remove Maduro and Chaves for some time and has not been successful,” Jones said.

Jones said that if Maduro’s socialist government remains in power, it will ultimately affect our border.

“One of the consequences of all this is that we will see more migration of Venezuelans to the United States and to the rest of Latin America,” Jones said.

In the meantime, those who take to the streets, waving their flags and chanting slogans, do not lose hope.

“They want to stay in power forever, people are saying no mas, no more,” Heydee Cervallos said. “The nation has woken up.”

Many plan to hold further peaceful protests in the city to raise awareness and support for their home country, which they hope will once again be free.

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