Nicolas Maduro doesn't mince his words or his threats. "I'm going to put them all in high-security prisons so that they pay for their crime, all of them!" said the Venezuelan president on Thursday, August 1. His re-election on July 28 was deemed fraudulent by the opposition. The crowd gathered outside the presidential palace applauded. "We've captured 1,200 of them, we're going to capture 1,000 more," said Maduro. Throughout the country, spontaneous protests and sporadic violence followed the proclamation of his victory.

Nineteen protesters – and one National Guard soldier – have been killed, according to the human rights organization Provea. Their families did not receive condolences from the president, who instead promised to punish the "criminals who destroyed hospitals, bus stations, police stations and Socialist Party offices." And 27 statues of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

Maduro never leaves the small screen. For the past five days, the president has been giving a series of speeches, all broadcast live. In front of his ministers, the crowds and the press, he castigates the opposition as putschists, fascists, criminals and even "Nazis."

After opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on Venezuelans to take to the streets on Saturday, August 3 mid-morning "to peacefully defend their vote," Maduro urged his compatriots not to allow themselves to be manipulated. He warned them that police had intercepted communications reporting a planned attack. The president's supporters marched in the capital in the early afternoon.

"I'd like to go to the opposition protest, but I'm afraid," said Ariadna, a dance teacher. She lives in a modest neighborhood "where there are still Chavistas who vote for Nicolas Maduro" and preferred not to give her surname.

"Condemn the criminals!" The order came from Maduro, who on Friday called on his compatriots from the presidential balcony to make use of the VenApp app. Launched in 2022 to improve the delivery of public services – notably water and electricity – VenApp has been reprogrammed to enable anonymous condemnations against "enemies of the people." At a press conference on Friday evening, the president claimed to have received over 5,000 denunciations.

Far from the presidential palace, in the Boleita district of Caracas, a small, anxious crowd waited outside the Zona 7 detention center of the Bolivarian National Police. The sun was beating down hard, and the few spots of shade provided shelter for the elderly. Here, no one wanted to say their real name, or that of the son or daughter, husband or nephew detained on the other side of the gray wall. Luisa, 42, slept on the sidewalk. She would like news of her 18-year-old daughter, arrested on Monday evening at the end of the protest. "She was able to call me very briefly from a phone we lent her. She was crying and begging me to get her out of there," said Luisa. Her daughter, a saleswoman in a clothing store, had never been involved in politics. On Sunday, she voted for the first time in her life.

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