How Venezuela’s recent history can inform its present-day election crisis

Caracas, Venezuela, and Medellin, Colombia – It was barely past midnight on July 29 when 86-year-old retiree Judith felt her hopes get “crushed”.

Judith — who asked to withhold her last name for her safety — had stayed up late to hear the outcome of Venezuela’s presidential election, which was widely expected to result in the defeat of President Nicolas Maduro.

Instead, the country’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that Maduro had won a third term in office. The opposition immediately refuted the results as fraudulent — but Judith remembers feeling crestfallen.

“There’s nothing left to do here,” she recalled thinking.

After more than eight decades of living in Venezuela, Judith had seen presidents and dictators rise and fall. That night, she saw Venezuela on the precipice of yet more turmoil, as Maduro and the opposition both claimed victory.

But experts and voters say Venezuela’s history may hold clues to how the ongoing electoral crisis will unfold.