The Morning: Venezuela’s dubious election

Plus, the Middle East, Kamala Harris and ultra-processed foods.

View in browser|nytimes.com July 31, 2024 Good morning. We're covering the fallout from Venezuela's election — as well as the Middle East, Kamala Harris and ultra-processed foods. In Caracas, Venezuela. Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times A dubious re-election By Julie Turkewitz I'm The Times's bureau chief for the Andes region. Venezuela is on fire. After a vote on Sunday, its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, claimed victory in his re-election campaign. But few believe he truly won, and he has not produced a vote count that verifies the result. The opposition says its candidate scored at least 3.9 million more votes than Maduro did. Now protesters are surging in the streets of this oil-rich nation, exasperated by a generation of leaders they can't get rid of. They are toppling statues of the man who founded the country's socialist movement. At least 16 people have died, including one soldier, and about 750 have been detained by security forces. Hundreds of people gathered on Tuesday in the capital, Caracas,to support the opposition. In some places, the authorities responded with tear gas. The day before, government-aligned gangs had responded with bullets. It's another chapter in a national saga of crisis, despotism and penury. Nearly eight million have fled the country, according to the United Nations; you've probably seen photos of Venezuelan families trudging toward the U.S. border. That migration has strained not only Venezuela's neighbors but even the United States, where the presidential election turns partly on a spike in immigration in recent years. Just 25 years ago, Venezuela had a functioning, if flawed, democracy. Then it elected Hugo Chávez, who helped pioneer a new form of Latin American socialism. His style antagonized Western powers but inspired hope among millions at home — and, at first, he helped many out of poverty. Then things began to change. How did the country fall so far? I've been covering the country since 2019, including the mass exodus of frustrated Venezuelans. In today's newsletter, I'll explain what happened here, and what's happening now. The descent In the 1970s, Venezuela prospered from an oil boom. Politics were stable, as two major parties competed in democratic elections. But a decade later, petroleum prices dropped. As the cost of living rose, voters came to see the two-party system as entrenched and self-serving. Hugo Chávez in 1998. Jose Caruci/Associated Press, via Associated Press In 1998, Chávez, a charismatic former military officer, ran for president as a popular insurgent. He promised his followers a more inclusive democracy, a system that would transfer the levers of power from the political elite to the people. He started building a system of direct democracy. A new Constitution added the referendum as a political tool. He created programs to deliver aid, and encouraged citizens to go directly to him for help. Thousands wrote him letters every year pleading for a home, a job, a scholarship. Chávez answered their pleas on his television program, "Aló Presidente." Eventually, he began to call his movement a socialist revolution — and it was enormously popular. Oil prices had rebounded by the 2000s, and the country was flush with cash. The state expanded free education and medical care. Poverty declined. His movement won election after election. In 2013, Chávez died. But he left behind a hollowed-out democracy. I've spent recent months speaking to political analysts and former officials in his government to understand what went wrong. They all cite a few problems. Chávez's quest to remove the barriers between himself and his people helped erect a cult of personality. If he made all the decisions, then the other mechanisms of government didn't matter. The bodies that would once have made policy and enforced laws were weakened. He ended term limits and essentially took control of the Supreme Court. "It's populism," one of Chávez's former communications ministers told me. The aftermath Maduro took over after Chávez. But the movement's luck had run out. The price of petroleum was plummeting, and the economy spiraled. People lost faith. Rather than allow democracy to run its course, Maduro cracked down. His government jailed dissidents, crushed protests and eventually crafted a parallel legislature that would compete with the opposition-held National Assembly — and implement the laws he wanted. In 2018, he barred major political parties and some opposition figures from running for office. The United States responded by issuing harsh sanctions that strangled what was left of the economy. "That's when Venezuela approached dictatorship," Steve Levitsky, an expert on democracy at Harvard, told me. Levitsky, co-author of the book "How Democracies Die," called Maduro's claim of victory in Sunday's vote "one of the most egregious electoral frauds in modern Latin American history." Maduro has weathered major protests before, and he has survived isolation from the United States and its allies by strengthening ties to Russia, China and Iran. It's unclear if this time will be different. Before the election, polls showed that as many as a third of Venezuelans were interested in migration if Maduro stayed in power. But that's not a realistic alternative for everyone. Those who remain face a choice: acquiesce in the immiseration of their country or speak up. Which is why so many are hitting the streets. More on Venezuela Our colleague Anatoly Kurmanaev, who lived in Venezuela for years, is in Caracas reporting on the protests. He describes what it's like on the ground. An opposition figure, María Corina Machado, built the most significant voter mobilization since Hugo Chávez. Many Venezuelans told pollsters they'd leave the country if Maduro won. They explained why. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East Ismail Haniyeh Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times A senior Hamas leader was assassinated in Tehran. Both Iran and Hamas blamed Israel for the killing, Israel has not yet commented. The strike amplified fears that war in the Mideast could spread. The official, Ismail Haniyeh, led Hamas's political operations in exile from Qatar and was a key figure in cease-fire negotiations. He was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran's new president. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Iran was duty-bound to avenge the assassination. Separately, Israel struck a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon's capital, in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack. Israeli officials said the strike in Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander. Lebanese officials said the Israeli strike killed at least four people, including two children. The site of the attack is a densely populated neighborhood that is home to Hezbollah's headquarters. More International News While most Ukrainians still oppose ceding any territory to Russia, more are opening up to the idea of a negotiated peace deal. Japan's central bank raised interest rates for only the second time since 2007, a move that could lift the value of the struggling yen. A former BBC News anchor, Huw Edwards, pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children. He was a high-profile TV figure who announced the news of Queen Elizabeth's death in 2022. 2024 Election Kamala Harris  Erin Schaff/The New York Times During a rally in Atlanta, Kamala Harris called on Donald Trump to commit to a presidential debate. The rally featured a crowd of around 10,000 people and a performance by the rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Harris plans to start campaigning with her pick for running mate in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The director of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint prepared for the next Republican president, is departing. Trump has tried to distance himself from the project. On Fox News, Trump repeated his assertion that Christians "won't have to vote anymore" if he wins. He declined to rebut criticism that he was pledging to end elections. In a radio interview, Trump said that Harris — whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish — "doesn't like Jewish people" and seemed to agree with the host's claim that Emhoff was a "crappy Jew," The A.P. reports. More on Politics The Senate passed bipartisan legislation to protect minors' privacy online. Speaker Mike Johnson hasn't committed to giving it a vote in the House, and some liberals oppose it because of censorship concerns. Kari Lake, who lost her 2022 campaign for Arizona governor after echoing Trump's false election-fraud claims, won the state's Republican Senate primary. She'll face Ruben Gallego, a House Democrat. See more results from last night's primaries. The Secret Service expected local snipers to cover the roof where Trump's would-be assassin was positioned, the agency's acting director said. A local official said his unit was not asked to do so. Other Big Stories In California.  Loren Elliott for The New York Times The Park fire has grown to become the fifth-largest wildfire in California history. Scientists say an exceptionally hot and dry summer has fueled the blaze's growth. Nearly 1,000 Native children died while attending boarding schools founded by the U.S. government, according to an Interior Department report that also detailed widespread sexual and physical abuse. Meta agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle claims that the company had illegally collected facial recognition information on millions of users. Opinions Today's section is devoted to a project in which columnists wrote about one thing they think everyone else is getting wrong. People say L.G.B.T.Q. people are born that way, but it's more complicated than that, Charles Blow argues. A.I. isn't going to be as powerful as many of its supporters think it will be, David Brooks argues. Mothers are told natural childbirth is best. It isn't, Michelle Goldberg argues. Cats are better than dogs, Pamela Paul argues. Conservatives think the market always gets it right. It doesn't, Bret Stephens argues. Politicians say we're more divided now than ever, but it could be worse, Zeynep Tufekci argues. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Testing breakfast foods. Lexey Swall for The New York Times Health: Why are ultra-processed foods so hard to resist? This study is trying to find out. Free beer: Some travel destinations are rewarding tourists for good behavior. Expect the unexpected: Here's how to garden in a changing climate. Mangia: Olives encased in Jell-O. Deconstructed lasagna. Italian food in New York is getting weirder. Renewables: Energy companies are short on workers to build solar farms. So they've turned to robots for help. Lives Lived: Tom Porton, a renowned teacher in the Bronx, inspired students to embrace the arts and engage with the world through AIDS programs and other community service projects. He died at 74. OLYMPICS The victorious Team USA. James Hill for The New York Times Gymnastics: Simone Biles and Team USA comfortably won the women's team final. Rugby sevens: The U.S. women's team took bronze after beating Australia. The win marked the American program's first Olympic medal in the sport. Tennis: The American flag-bearer Coco Gauff lost to Croatia's Donna Vekic in the third round of the women's singles. Soccer: The U.S. men's team advanced to the Olympic knockout rounds for the first time in 24 years after a 3-0 win over Guinea. Read a recap. ARTS AND IDEAS At the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Eleanor George Museum guards stand beside works of art for hours each day. That time allows them to form intimate relationships with the works, to understand the technique and emotion behind them. And it means that many guards develop favorites — often pieces that are not their museum's best-known works. The Times asked five guards in five renowned museums, including the Met, the Picasso Museum in Spain and the Victoria and Albert Museum in Britain, to share their favorite pieces. More on culture Six American novels, including ones by Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner, were nominated for the Booker Prize, a British award. Just two works by British authors were nominated. YouTube has become one of the biggest streaming apps on TV, where it has more viewers than Netflix or Disney+. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Kelly Marshall for The New York Times Fill your kitchen with the rich fragrances of this one-pot chicken and rice dish from Nigeria. Travel with your pet in the right carrier. Try a natural deodorant that actually works. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was walkout. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. 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