In an unsurprising decision, Venezuela's regime-dominated Supreme Court sided with President Nicolás Maduro he won the election last month and claimed that the voting results published online, showing his convincing loss, were fake.
On Thursday, a courtroom packed with Maduro supporters read the ruling in response to Maduro's request to review the election results showing he won by more than 1 million votes.
The court's ruling to approve the results contradicts the experts' findings United Nations and the Carter Center, which were invited to monitor the elections and which concluded that the results announced by the authorities were not credible.
The main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal votes.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures while voting in the presidential election in Caracas on July 28, 2024. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images)
Venezuelan government officials say cyberattack carried out by hackers from North Macedonia delayed vote counting on election night and the publication of the results, but they did not provide any evidence.
Gabriel Boric, Chile's leftist president and one of the main critics of Maduro's election scam, criticized the Supreme Court's decision.
“Today, Venezuela’s TSJ finally solidified the fraud,” he wrote on his account, referring to the high court’s acronym. “The Maduro regime obviously welcomes his decision with enthusiasm… there is no doubt that we are facing a dictatorship that is rigging elections.”
The decision is Maduro's latest attempt to tamp down protests and international criticism that erupted after a disputed July 28 election in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader sought a third, six-year term, the Associated Press reported.
Maduro is widely believed to be in a fraudulent election victory in his country last month. Numerous regional governments have questioned official results that showed Maduro winning 51.2% of the vote, with 80% of polling stations reporting.
The opposition claims the results are inaccurate and claims it won the election with 70% of the vote.
“In Venezuela, an occupied territory of the Axis of Evil, the judicial system is essentially non-existent due to the complete absence of the rule of law,” Isaias Medina III, a former U.N. Security Council diplomat and Harvard Mason School Fellow, told Fox News Digital.
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Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government protest in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas on July 29, 2024, the day after Venezuela's presidential election. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)
“The separation of powers was effectively destroyed when the Chavismos took control, resulting in the emergence of “courts” with unqualified staff that are merely an extension of the Maduro regime, parroting his dictates without independent judgment or integrity. The courts are a third-rate play staged by Maduro, who foots the bill.”
Polls conducted over the summer consistently showed that the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez a victory by a double-digit margin.
Gonzalez was the only one of the 10 nominees who did not participate in the Supreme Court's vetting process, a fact noted by the justices, who in their ruling accused him of trying to sow panic, the AP reported.
When the National Electoral Council announced around midnight that Maduro had won 51% of the vote compared to 44% support for the main opposition candidate González, National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso said the results were based on 80% of polling stations and represented an irreversible trend.
“Over the last two decades, the socialists have completely destroyed the separation of powers in Venezuela. As in the former Soviet Union, Maduro controls and leads not only the executive branch, but also the parliament, the electoral commission and the Supreme Court,” Jorge Chraissati, a Venezuelan and president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital.
“This process began in the 2000s, when former President Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013) filled the Supreme Court with loyalists. In fact, there are shocking videos of Supreme Court judges chanting songs belonging to the Venezuelan Socialist Party. Ultimately, this shows that the Venezuelan crisis cannot be resolved by the country's institutions, as they are completely loyal to Maduro and are responsible for the political crisis we are living in today.”
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President Nicolas Maduro (centre) and protesters in Venezuela after his controversial victory claim. (Getty Images)
Even though Maduro was declared the winner of a third term, the opposition claimed victory, setting up a standoff with the government over the results.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., condemned the outcome and criticized the Biden administration's policies.
“Another foreign policy failure for the Biden-Harris team,” he wrote in X. “They lifted Trump’s oil sanctions on Maduro and released his top money launderer and two of his nephews convicted of drug trafficking in exchange for a ‘promise’ to hold fair elections overseen by neutral international observers.”
Officials and lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere have expressed concerns about the legitimacy Venezuelan Presidential Election Results after Maduro was declared the winner.
A bipartisan group of congressional leaders also said Maduro's victory was fraudulent.
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Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, top left; incumbent President Nicolas Maduro, bottom left; and protests against recent election results. (Getty Images)
“It came as no surprise to anyone that dictator Nicolás Maduro stole the presidential election again. But what the drug regime will never steal is the desire of the Venezuelan people to return to democracy and live freely after decades of tyranny.
“We must prioritize uniting the free world in condemning these sham election results and securing the release of the more than 300 Venezuelans who remain arbitrarily held in torture centers as political prisoners.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken The Biden administration previously said it had “grave concerns” about the results and insisted they “do not reflect the will or voice of the Venezuelan people.”
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Following the announcement, protests on both sides erupted across the country last month.
Venezuelans took to the streets to protest what was widely seen as a fraudulent election. The protests began peacefully, but police armed with riot gear escalated the situation, leading to violence from both protesters and police.
Protesters threw objects, including rocks, at police, and police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
Maduro called the resistance to his victory “an attempt… to carry out a coup d'état in Venezuela,” adding that “we already know the movie, and this time there will be no weakness.” Maduro added that “Venezuelan law will be respected.”
Landon Mion, Peter Aitken of Fox News Digital and the Associated Press contributed to this report.