Opposition hopes for victory after years of repression

“She’s going to rot in prison. No one will get her out.”

This is what prison guards told the family of Emirlendris Benítez, who disappeared in Venezuela in August 2018 after being arrested with her partner, a taxi driver, while she was driving someone downtown.

She was arbitrarily accused of organizing a plot to assassinate the president and, without a fair trial, sentenced to 30 years in prison.

When she was taken to prison, she was pregnant. The guards beat her stomach despite her protests and she suffered a miscarriage.

Her family tells us that she was tortured in prison, including having her fingernails ripped out with a hammer.

According to the human rights group Foro Penal, 15,700 arbitrary arrests for political reasons took place in Venezuela between 2014 and 2023 and hundreds of people remain behind bars.

It is one of several measures taken by the government to suppress dissent.

The BBC asked the government and the prosecutor for comment or an interview and received no response.

President Nicolás Maduro has been in power since succeeding his mentor Hugo Chávez in 2013 and is seeking re-election on Sunday.

Photos of him line the streets, and on the last day of campaigning in Caracas, hundreds of buses were paid to transport people from across the country to his final rally where free food packages were handed out to encourage them to attend.

Venus, a woman at the rally, said Mr Maduro’s PSUV party had given her many “advantages”.

“We are here to support Nicolas Maduro until the end,” she said.

Iván, another supporter, says: “To those who oppose us, to those who say that there is no democracy, that there is a dictatorship here… this revolution will continue to shine.”

But even some of Mr Maduro’s supporters have fallen victim to the crackdown on dissent.

A member of Emirlendris’ family, Ana (not her real name), spoke to us on condition of anonymity.

Her family voted for Nicolás Maduro, and before him for Hugo Chávez, but she says today that “everything has changed because we understood how justice works in Venezuela.”

“The government is desperate because it knows it has lost. Many people have opened their eyes and are realizing the reality we live in in Venezuela. In the name of Almighty God, I hope a new president wins for a better Venezuela.”

The latest elections were widely seen as neither free nor fair, with many countries refusing to recognize Mr. Maduro as president and the United States imposing new sanctions on Venezuela.

For the first time in years, the opposition feels it has considerable momentum and a lead in the polls, making it harder for the ruling party to claim victory.

But the government has deployed a range of tactics with the armed forces and the electoral and judicial authorities it controls to preemptively repress the opposition, including arresting critics, withdrawing invitations to EU election observers and preventing millions of Venezuelans living abroad from registering to vote.

Alcides Bracho is a teacher who was arrested on July 4, 2022 after participating in a protest demanding better wages.

“We’re talking about 800 days without a raise, and that’s a salary of $3.50 per month,” he recalls.

But after the demonstration he was arrested and charged with “terrorism”.

“They came to the house, about 22 people with long rifles. Weapons that looked like the ones you see in action movies or video games for boys. Without a search warrant.”

He was forced to remain naked for 72 hours in detention, without access to food, water or toilets, after being sentenced to 16 years in prison for “conspiracy” and “criminal association”.

“I thought I was going to die.”

“If you want to start a business in Venezuela, let it be a prison. They make you pay for everything. The state doesn’t give you food,” he said of the lack of even the most basic things in prison.

He was eventually released in a prisoner swap with the United States last December, in which 19 political prisoners were freed in exchange for Alex Saab, a money launderer accused of having close ties to President Maduro, who has been indicted in the United States.

Despite what happened to him, Mr. Bracho wants to continue fighting.

“If we all stay silent, if no one does, there is no fight.”

“There is an increase in repression. We are very worried. I can’t start my life again, I don’t have a safe space.”

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was banned from running in Sunday’s elections, dozens of members of her team were arrested and even the food stalls that served her were closed.

Most television and radio stations are state-run, but many other digital media are blocked.

Bus TV is a campaign of volunteers reading “real news” on buses across the country.

Andrés Brancovic is one of the volunteers. He believes that “censorship” could affect the vote.

“Twitter is one of the most used applications in Venezuela right now, because people can post whatever they want and see what’s happening. But those who only have national television at home don’t see what’s happening on the opposition side.”

“All the news is in favor of the regime,” he said.

Although Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves in the world, it is extremely poor. More than half of Venezuela’s population lives in poverty and nearly eight million people have fled the country, contributing to a migration crisis on the border with the United States.

Jhonatan Marcano lives with his family of five in a small room.

He goes fishing every day in an inflatable boat, often in dangerous tides, to feed his family.

He can’t afford a boat or fuel. He relies on the tide to get him back to land every day.

“I have always voted for those in power. Chavez inspired confidence in me.”

But today he is undecided: “Help is not coming, what you need most is not coming to you. I am so disappointed in the party.”

President Maduro blames the country’s woes on U.S. sanctions, but his critics also blame corruption and economic mismanagement.

There are reasons why the West wants to improve its relations with Venezuela: the country’s oil and natural resources, the fact that Iran, China and Russia count on Venezuela as an ally in the West, and because they do not want the migration crisis in the United States to worsen.

But it is unlikely that sanctions will be lifted and that the government will acknowledge that the vote is again considered unfair.