Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a march amid the disputed presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blamed “international Zionism” for the protests against his reign following the country’s July 28 elections after which he claimed victory despite widespread suspicions of foul play.

The “extremist right,” referring to his opposition, “is supported by international Zionism,” Maduro claimed in an address over the weekend. “All the communication power of Zionism, who controls all social networks, the satellites, and all the power behind this coup d’état.”

The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, is now blaming “international Zionism” for the mass protests against his apparently fraudulent election victory. pic.twitter.com/vGLHTq2dNQ

— Yonatan Touval (@Yonatan_Touval) August 4, 2024

Deborah Lipstadt, the US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, called Maduro’s claims “absurd,” “antisemitic,” and “unacceptable.”

“The Venezuelan people have gone to the streets to peacefully call for their votes to be counted,” she wrote on X/Twitter. “We reject all forms of antisemitism, and the use of these types of age-old tropes fans the flames of Jew hatred in Latin America and throughout the world.”

Maduro’s absurd claim that Jews are behind election protests in Venezuela is antisemitic and unacceptable. The Venezuelan people have gone to the streets to peacefully call for their votes to be counted. We reject all forms of antisemitism, and the use of these types of age-old…

— Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt (@StateSEAS) August 5, 2024

Pro-Israel activist Hen Mazzig pointed out that Maduro’s “claims about ‘international Zionism’ are practically a page out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of the most influential and damaging antisemitic propaganda texts.”

“It should go unsaid in 2024, but a government official’s political analysis should not rely on age-old antisemitic tropes to explain his country’s ills,” he continued.

Maduro has been in power since 2013 and has overseen a dramatic economic decline in Venezuela. Redirecting personal failures as the fault of Jews, or, in this case, “international Zionism,” has long been a tactic of antisemites looking for a scapegoat.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British charity, argued on X/Twitter that “antisemitism is just as useful to the far-left as it is to the far-right,” apparently referring to the fact that Maduro is a socialist.

Protests and unrest erupted in Venezuela after the presidential election late last month, when Maduro’s government was accused by his political opposition, outside observers, and foreign governments of committing fraud to secure a victory.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “the processing of those votes and the announcement of results by the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) were deeply flawed, yielding an announced outcome that does not represent the will of the Venezuelan people. ”

Blinken noted that “the CNE’s rapid declaration of Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the presidential election came with no supporting evidence.”

It claimed that Maduro won a narrow victory with 51 percent of the vote.

On the other hand, according to Blinken, “the democratic opposition has published more than 80 percent of the tally sheets received directly from polling stations throughout Venezuela. Those tally sheets indicate that Edmundo González Urrutia received the most votes in this election by an insurmountable margin.”