Grapevine

By Al Jazeera
Sep 5, 2024

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

For Tenreiro, the present-day crisis reminds her of a tumultuous period she lived through more than 60 years ago.

At the time, she was a 20-year-old college student, and Venezuela’s last military dictator, Marcos Perez Jimenez, was in the final throes of his rule.

"I see so many similarities. A fraudulent election being the first one,” Tenreiro told Al Jazeera.

On December 15, 1957, Perez Jimenez held a referendum to decide whether he should remain in power. Within a few hours of the vote, a result was announced: The widely unpopular Perez Jimenez had somehow won in a landslide.

But the suspect nature of the results triggered a backlash. The vote was widely denounced as fraudulent, and within just 39 days, Perez Jimenez fled to the Dominican Republic.