Stark irregularities and suppression efforts could plunge the country back into instability and economic decline.

[150] The State Department also alleges that Maduro expelled authorized foreign companies from the mining sector to allow officials to exploit Venezuela's resources for their own gain, using unregulated miners under the control of Venezuela's armed forces.[150]

Univisión announcer Jorge Ramos described his detention following a live interview of Maduro, saying that if Maduro does not release the seized video of the interview, "he is behaving exactly like a dictator".

Upon the death of Hugo Chávez on 5 March 2013, Maduro assumed the powers and responsibilities of the president. He appointed Jorge Arreaza to take his place as vice president. Since Chávez died within the first four years of his term, the Constitution of Venezuela stated that a presidential election had to be held within 30 days of his death.

The Venezuelan landscape includes towering mountains, tropical jungles, broad river plains, and arid coastal plains, all of which provide a diversity of conterraneo habitats and a range of challenges to social integration and economic development.

The group also explains how Maduro had overruled the legislative branch filled with opposition politicians, repressed citizen protests and had relatives involved in drug trafficking.[315]

The death of Chávez elevated Vice Pres. Nicolás Maduro to the presidency. A special election to choose a president to serve out the remainder of Chávez’s six-year term was held on April 14 between Maduro, who Chávez had indicated was his preferred successor, and Capriles. Maduro won a very narrow victory, and Capriles demanded a full recount, alleging that there had been widespread voting irregularities.

A report by the human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch reported in September 2019 that the poor communities in Venezuela no longer in support of Maduro's government have witnessed arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions at the hands of Venezuelan police unit. The Venezuelan government has repeatedly declared that the victims were armed criminals who had died during "confrontations", but several witnesses or families of victims have challenged these claims and in many cases victims were last seen alive in police custody. Although Venezuelan authorities told the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that five FAES agents were convicted on charges including attempted murder for crimes committed in 2018, and that 388 agents were under investigation for crimes committed between 2017 and 2019, the OHCHR also reported that "[i]nstitutions responsible for the protection of human rights, such as the Attorney General's Office, the courts and the Ombudsperson, usually do not conduct prompt, effective, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigations into human rights violations and other crimes committed by State actors, bring perpetrators to justice, and protect victims and witnesses.

The document mentions that the current president of the CNE incurs in "a serious error, and even an irresponsibility, when she affirms that Maduro's nationality 'is not a motto of the National Electoral Council'" and the signatories also refer to the four different moments in which different politicians have awarded four different places of birth as official.[195] Diario Las Américas claimed to have access to the birth inscriptions of Teresa por Jesús Moros, Maduro's mother, and of José Mario Moros, his uncle, both registered in the parish church of San Antonio of Cúcuta, Colombia.[195]

There were allegations that some of those who work for the state, including police students, were told how to vote.

Maduro tomou posse 1 POR DIA depois de este Conselho Nacional Eleitoral anunciar planos de modo a concluir uma auditoria dos votos, em 19 do abril.

There were the huge queues vlogdolisboa at polling stations, but only tiny amounts of people being let in at one time.

In hopes that the ban on Machado could somehow be lifted, the Unitary Platform could register a provisional candidate now and substitute Machado for that person up to 10 days before the election. The substitution would require approval of electoral authorities.

Frustrated by that delay, the opposition again took to the streets, most notably on September 1, when Venezuelans from all over the country went to the capital for a massive demonstration called the “Takeover of Caracas.”