Tens of thousands of angry Venezuelan voters marched through central Caracas yesterday, defiantly pumping the tropical air with their fists. They chanted the decades-old mantra of  Latin America’s left: “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.” In the upside-down  of  today’s Venezuela today, this roar of “The people, united, will never be defeated” was a demand to end a quarter century of  socialism and the resignation of its leader, President Nicolás Maduro.

The massive crowd — as many as 100,000 — was bolstered by residents of the capital’s hillside shantytowns, the very same working class neighborhoods which backed the socialist revolution in 1999. Walking down freeways built during Venezuela’s oil boom years of the 1980s, protesters sought to defend the victory of an opposition candidate, Edmundo González. They say he received twice as many votes in Sunday’s presidential election as Mr. Maduro.

Mr. Maduro’s Socialist Party controls Venezuela’s courts,  congress, military, press, and National Election Council. On his 11-year watch, this oil-rich nation has gone from enjoying the highest living standards in South America to suffering from one of the lowest. In response, one quarter of the population walked out. Before the election, as many as 40 percent of poll respondents said they too would consider emigrating if Mr. Maduro won a third six-year term.

Now, with their backs to the wall, many Venezuelans are fighting back. “We are not afraid,” is another frequent chant at protests. A local non-governmental organization, Venezuelan Conflict Observatory, reports that authorities confronted at least 115 demonstrations in 20 states yesterday. 

With protesters throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, looting ruling party headquarters, and burning Maduro election banners, police and pro-government motorcycle gangs have killed at least 11 people over the last two days, according to local rights group Foro Penal. During the same period, the government says 750 people have been arrested. Yesterday, masked men kidnapped a former congressman, Freddy Superlano, a close political ally of opposition leaders.

In response to the mass opposition protest, Mr. Maduro gave a balcony speech at the whitewashed Miraflores Presidential Palace. He threatened to arrest candidate González and his fellow campaigner María Corina Machado. He said on national TV: “I hold you responsible Mr. González for the criminal violence, for the injured, for the deceased, for the destruction, you will be directly responsible and Mrs. Machado.” 

“We will capture them all,” he continued. Promising his own mass demonstration today, he called for the “maximum union of the people, the soldiers, and the police.” He vowed to replace all toppled statues of the Army officer who led the Socialist revolution 25 years ago, Hugo Chávez Frias.

Taking the arrest threat seriously, Costa Rica’s government yesterday offered political asylum to Mr. González and Mrs. Machado as well as to six opposition campaign officials who took refuge in the Argentine embassy at Caracas last April. Ms. Machado responded that she plans to stay in Venezuela and fight. Last fall, she won over 90 percent of the votes in an opposition primary. In response, the government banned her from holding public office for 15 years.

Costa Rica’s asylum offer would be hard to carry out. With shops closed and highways blocked by burning tires, protesters yesterday took over the nation’s main international airport, at Maiquetía, 17 miles north of the capital. 

“We’ve seen this movie before,” Mr. Maduro said on national TV, referring to previous election protests he put down at the price of dozens of lives. He called for a “maximum mobilization” of security forces to repress protests this week, saying: “We know how to face these situations — and how to defeat the violent ones.”

In an effort to find a peaceful path, President Biden yesterday discussed Venezuela for 30 minutes by telephone with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The White House later said: “The two leaders agreed on the need for immediate release of full, transparent and detailed voting data at the polling station level by the Venezuelan electoral authorities.” This position is shared by Venezuela’s western neighbor, Colombia, and by the 35-member Organization of American States. Yesterday, Peru recognized Mr. González as Venezuela’s president-elect.

The opposition base their victory claim on their analysis of tally sheets they obtained — 73 percent of the total. Of this batch, Mr. González received 6.3 million votes and Mr. Maduro received 2.8 million. The opposition has posted their tally sheets online. The National Electoral Council has not. 

Last spring, Venezuela’s opposition alliance settled on Mr. González, a retired ambassador, partly because they hoped he would be able to use his diplomatic skills to negotiate a Maduro exit  between the July election and January inauguration. Among the many obstacles is a $15 million bounty placed on Mr. Maduro’s head in 2020 by the Trump Administration. 

“Nicolás Maduro Moros and 14 Current and Former Venezuelan Officials Charged with Narco-Terrorism, Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Criminal Charges,” headlines a Trump-era Department of Justice press release. Referring to a Colombian left-wing guerrilla group, the release adds: “Maduro and Other High Ranking Venezuelan Officials Allegedly Partnered With the FARC to Use Cocaine as a Weapon to ‘Flood’ the United States.”

Mr. Maduro also is under investigation by the International Criminal Court for claims that his security forces participated in the torture and killings of dissidents during street uprisings against him in 2017.

For many in the opposition, the key to unlocking Venezuela’s political box does not come from Washington. It comes from Venezuela’s military.

In her first major speech since the voting on Sunday, Ms. Machado openly appealed yesterday to Venezuela’s military to intervene. She said of the big vote for the opposition: “The soldiers saw with their own eyes the triumph against tyranny. It’s your duty to defend sovereignty and protect Venezuelans.” For his part, Mr. González, posted on X a video message:  “To the security forces and armed forces, we insist that you respect the will Venezuelans expressed on July 28 and stop the repression of peaceful protests.”

So far, with the exception of a few small unit defections to the opposition cause, the military high command shows no sign of cracking. Yesterday, the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López,  blamed “violent actions promoted by the Venezuelan extreme right” on a “media coup d’état supported by North American imperialism.”  Referring to opposition street protests, he said there is a “coup in progress.” He said Venezuela’s armed forces will help defeat it.