Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appears to be implementing a "police state" as roughly 2,000 protesters were arrested amid accusations he stole last week's election to remain in office.
The United States on Thursday recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the country's presidential election, discrediting the official results of the vote.
Venezuela's electoral body declared Maduro the winner July 29, but the main opposition coalition revealed hours later that it had evidence to the contrary in the form of more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed.
An angry Maduro, who said González should be jailed, announced the arrest of 2,000 protesters and promised to send them to maximum-security prisons for 30 years, the same sentence given to murderers, Bloomberg reported.
Venezuela's journalists union says at least 14 media workers have been deported.
At a Saturday rally in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Maduro pledged to detain more people and send them to prison.
It's the fiercest crackdown in Maduro's 11-year rule.
"Maduro has miscalculated — badly," Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Director Ryan Berg said, Bloomberg reported.
"In order to remain in power, Maduro has moved the country in the direction of Nicaragua, which is a total police state."
Maduro's rival, the ever-popular María Corina Machado, and González are in danger of imminent arrest.
Both appeared to be in hiding, though Machado surprised and encouraged her supporters by showing up to the Saturday morning demonstration.
"It's one thing when you imagine your vote stolen. It was a possibility. But seeing the robbery in front of our eyes is another complete different thing," said María Gomez, a 64-year-old secretary from the low-income neighborhood of Petare, Bloomberg reported.
During his press conference on Saturday, an irate Maduro screamed at his opponents in Venezuela and abroad.
"Do not insist on your agenda of bringing a war to Venezuela, as you did with Afghanistan," he said. "You are responsible for the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in Libya, and for death, the international media."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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