Who Are the Venezuelan Opposition? Leonardo Flores & Alejandro Velasco Debate Election Aftermath

Turmoil continues in Venezuela after July’s contested election, in which both President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition claimed victory. The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner with 51% of the vote, but the opposition has released thousands of vote tally sheets online that, if authenticated, suggest a landslide win for Edmundo González. Maduro has tasked the country’s Supreme Court with verifying the electoral results, though critics question the court’s impartiality. Meanwhile, dueling protests have taken place in Caracas and other parts of Venezuela as international rights groups have denounced a crackdown against demonstrators by government forces, including some 2,000 reported arrests. But Maduro and allies say it is the opposition that has led widespread attacks, causing the deaths of at least 25 people during protests after the July 28 election. For more on the crisis in Venezuela, we speak with Leonardo Flores, a Venezuelan political analyst, activist and founding member of the Venezuela Solidarity Network, and Alejandro Velasco, associate professor at NYU, where he is a historian of modern Latin America.