ABSTRACT
Following the death of Hugo Chavez the previous month, Venezuelans voted in new presidential elections on April 14th, which pitted Chavez’s Vice-President, Nicolas Maduro, against opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski. Maduro won 15 of Venezuela’s 23 states, plus the influential capital district and the popular vote by 51 to 49 percent; a margin much smaller than Chavez had the previous October. After the results were announced, Capriles refused to recognize them, claiming he had won. He demanded a full audit and subsequently a recount. He called for his supporters to “vent their anger” on the streets, which resulted in 11 people, mostly chavistas, being killed (Ciccariello-Maher, 2016: 50). This chapter analyzes how the media covered the events.
