Russian defense officials fear that Venezuela’s parliamentary elections Sunday, which resulted in an overwhelming win for the opposition, may be costing them one of their best customers.
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Moderates however are calling for dialogue to give Maduro a chance to roll back policies they blame for the unprecedented economic crisis.
Maduro, though, was defiant during a three-hour television appearance on Tuesday night.
“I can say today that the economic war has triumphed”, Maduro, surrounded by his party’s top leadership, said from the presidential palace.
“I will not accept any amnesty law, because they violated human rights”, the Venezuelan president has asserted, adding, “They can send me a thousand laws but the murderers have to be prosecuted and have to pay”.
Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate and one of the leading figures in the opposition coalition, tweeted that “We won Venezuela!”.
The worst economic crisis in the OPEC country’s recent history has Venezuelan staples including flour, milk, meat and beans running scarce.
“We urge the government to stop crying and start working”, Democratic Unity coalition leader Jesus Torrealba said in a news conference under a sign reading ‘Thank you Venezuela, we won!’
The third, and perhaps most important reason why Maduro will have a hard time suppressing or ignoring the new congressional majority, is that the price of oil – which accounts for 98 percent of Venezuela’s foreign income – has fallen to its lowest level in seven years, and is not likely to recover much anytime soon.
Those line-ups are from Venezuela’s endemic consumer-goods shortages and the world’s highest inflation-more than 85%.
The scale of the loss was such that the socialists even were swept in Chavez’s home state of Barinas, where his brother Adan is governor and several family members hold high office.
The government kept the Chavez legacy distorted exchange-rate system and capital and price controls, and printed a lot of the bolivar currency, but blamed private sector business for the economic shambles this created.
More than 48 hours after polls closed in the mid-term election, the National Electoral Council published the final tally on its website, confirming that the last two undecided races went the opposition coalition’s way, giving them 112 out of 167 seats in the national assembly.
That supermajority of two-thirds gives the opposition a strong platform to challenge the broadly unpopular Maduro.
“If Maduro doesn’t change we’ll have to change the government”.
“The bad guys won, like the bad guys always do, through lies and fraud”, said Maduro.
The PSUV gained 5.6 million votes overall, while the MUD won 7.7m in Sunday’s election.
Sunday’s election was a dramatic blow for Maduro and the socialist “revolution” launched in 1999 by his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.
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According to preliminary results, the opposition bloc will get the majority of seats in Venezuela’s national parliament.
