MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Tomorrow, in Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro is set to be sworn in for a third term - now this despite disputed results from the election this past July, which opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez says he won by a landslide. Gonzalez left Venezuela for Spain. He has been in exile, and he spent these last few days traveling to shore up international support. This week, he met with President Biden, and now he says he will travel to Venezuela to be sworn in, despite a warrant for his arrest and a $100,000 bounty on his head.
Raul Stolk is the managing director of the news site Caracas Chronicles, which covers Venezuelan politics. I spoke with him earlier this afternoon to talk through what's going on.
So it sounds like we're looking at this showdown tomorrow. Two politicians - Nicolas Maduro, who many believe stole the election, and Edmundo Gonzalez, who's vowed to challenge the inauguration at what sounds like great personal risk - set the stage for us a little bit more about what the atmosphere is like in Venezuela.
RAUL STOLK: Well, right now, in the moment that we're doing this interview, there's a lot of stuff going on because the opposition called for a protest today. Maria Corina Machado, who is - she's the one who has, like, the political capital in the opposition leadership...
KELLY: Mmm hmm - and Gonzalez's fellow opposition leader, yeah.
STOLK: Yes. Machado has been in hiding for several months. She's in Venezuela, and she appeared in the protest today. The thing is that, right now, as we're speaking, there is not - you know, she went to the protest. She gave a speech. There was a lot of police and military presence around the area where the protest was taking place. And I have reports of the - Maduro's intelligence police trying to get close to her, people blocking them. But as she left, there's - we have some information that she was intercepted.
KELLY: So let me fill in a little bit more context here for Americans trying to keep up. You're - we're talking about two opposition leaders - Gonzalez, who ran in the election and says he won, Machado, who, as you mentioned, is, if anything, a larger presence in Venezuelan politics. I actually interviewed her in November. She was, as you say, in hiding. This development today - she left her hideout for the first time in months. She joined the protests, and it sounds like there are reports that she's been intercepted. You don't know yet exactly what has happened there.
STOLK: Yes.
KELLY: So into all of this, Gonzalez says he is going to show up tomorrow to actually contest the inauguration. How likely is it that that will happen - that he'll even be able to get back into the country?
STOLK: Well, there is a warrant for the arrest of Gonzalez, and this reward - this $100,000 reward - that's basically kind of a propaganda device. They put banners all over the city with a wanted poster. But I don't think that they want to be in the position to actually take him in. What I think that they will do is look for ways to block his access to the country.
KELLY: I know you have colleagues spread out in Venezuela trying to cover all of this. What are they hearing from people? What is the conversation? Is it hope? Is it confusion? Is it despair?
STOLK: I do believe - and I've seen surveys where at least 70% of Venezuelans think that something positive is going to come out of this - that this is, like, the first step toward a transition. And - well, 70% of Venezuelans is basically what voted against Maduro. So I would say that the opposition leadership has - even in this complicated situation, has been able to keep the support steady.
KELLY: That was Raul Stolk, the managing director of the news site Caracas Chronicles, talking us through dramatic political developments in Venezuela. Thank you.
STOLK: Thank you for this interview.
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