Things are about to get ugly in Venezuela

At 3:45 a.m., the sun was not yet out in the Venezuelan valley of Caracas, but Andrés, a twenty-two-year old who lives in the outskirts, woke up and with the Gloria Al Bravo Pueblo national anthem at maximum volume, roused his family too. From deep in the valley, Natalia showed up to the polls at 7 a.m. She then headed back to pick her elderly parents; “they can skip the line now,” she tells me. 

Like them, thousands of others got up Sunday morning with a mission: make the Venezuelan presidential election — the most consequential one in twenty-five-years — fraud-proof. The logic: the world has to see what Venezuelans see, eyes don’t lie. 

“It’s 5 a.m. and we have work!,” said the face of the opposition, María Corina Machado. “ I ask that our National Anthem be heard throughout the world, from your heart…. Let’s go out and vote as a family with strength, joy and conviction, because we are going to achieve it!”

More than 4,000 miles away, in Madrid, twenty-two-year-old Andrea is in Plaza de Colón, which at full capacity, is playing música llanera (Venezuela’s version of country music). People are dancing, the three-colored flags are waving. A few exiled leaders, like former deputy of the national congress Antonio Ledezma, take the stage. 

Meanwhile in Washington, DC, I’m with my crying mom and hundreds of singing Venezuelans at the Liberator Simón Bolívar Memorial, steps away from the Organization of American States building. Her birthday is tomorrow: what do you think she, as someone who grew up there, wants for a gift?

Microphone in hand, I addressed the youth in the audience, telling them that their reputations define the image the world has of the country. “The world has to know that those with a Venezuelan mom, like mine, are well-educated, have good values, work hard, move forward, are humble.”

There was hope in the plaza; random old women hugging me. Ukrainians, Cubans. Bolivians, all there showing support. I overheard a conversation, “I want my children to grow up in the Venezuela I called home.” Just like that man, around the world, from Mexico City to Buenos Aires, people are sharing similar sentiments. 

At 8 p.m. in Caracas, my friend Ana tells me that she’s counting votes with Andrés. “There were so many people, honking their horns, voting in family,” she says, but when the polls closed, “we started counting and several police officers started to show up, with their faces covered and their weapons visible.”

At 10 p.m., my dad, cynical as ever, tells my mom “I told you so!” My mom isn’t happy. The fraud is on. 

Diosdado Cabello, a Chavista deputy, who has served as vice president, acting president, among others, addresses his base. “Brothers and sisters, how are you? Look, once and for all, let’s not think about it anymore, let’s go to the streets, the people to the electoral centers, because they do not understand reasons, but rather popular mobilization.”

“So let’s move, let’s move. They do not understand the reason for the people’s vote, that the people came out to vote in a majority, that there are some results that the [electoral council] is going to give and those results they know do not favor them and they are going to seek to generate violence. So let’s take the before, during and after plan at once. Defense of the vote. Give him a hug with Bolívar, with Chávez, with Maduro, with the people. We will win.”

Unconfirmed pictures are leaking. On FaceTime calls, family members dotted around the world are asking, “how will they steal it?”

Less than hour has passed by since Cabello hinted at their win, hundreds of men are recorded from a building looking at the Francisco Fajardo highway. They are marching toward the electoral council’s office. Rumors are that Maduro will be announcing his win shortly, but the people aren’t having it.

 “Venezuela has lost its fear,” people are saying all over social media. What will happen? It remains uncertain, but conditions seem ripe for chaos. Unlike past leaders, Machado seems unlikely to accept fraud. Predictions are getting uglier. Those who pray, should be praying tonight, for the Venezuelan people.