Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles has officially challenged the results of the Apr. 14 presidential election, in which he narrowly lost to Nicolas Maduro, political heir to former President Hugo Chavez, the bombastic autocrat who died in office in March.
The special election was mandated by the Venezuelan constitution, which required the quick selection of a successor. Maduro defeated Capriles by less than 2 percent of the vote, a result Capriles says was ensured through vote rigging, bribery and violence.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court will almost definitely rule in favor of Maduro, as it is comprised of many allies of Chavez' political party, but the challenge is merely the first official step for Capriles,
"We are going to exhaust all the internal institutions because we have no doubt that this case will end up in the international community," he said.
For his part, Maduro has tried to brush off the allegations as posturing by sore losers. "There is a small group of right-wing fascists who have hijacked the Venezuelan opposition and are leading the fascist project, the ultra-right, the extremists, from the old bourgeoisie, the masters of the valley," Maduro told his supporters in a nationally televised speech. "Accept your defeat fascist! Stop with the kicking, the whining. You are a whiny, bourgeois fascist who wants to incite hatred and violence in the country."
Violent protests have occurred across Venezuela since the moderate opposition refused to accept the results of the election. The National Electoral Council, also allied with the ruling party, has refused to examine vote or perform a recount of the ballots.
On Tuesday, violence erupted in the National Assembly, the unicameral legislature of Venezuela, when Maduro's ruling party refused to allow members of the opposition to speak in session until they formally recognized the results of the election.
There is little Capriles can do within Venezuela to stop Maduro from taking power. The opposition is loath to call on its supporters to take up arms or engage in more violent protests, so intervention from the international community is likely their only other option. That is a slim hope, as many South American nations have already recognized Maduro as president, and the international community is more interested in the unrestricted flow of oil from Venezuela's massive reserves than in an end to internal political turmoil.