Fearing that opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez will return to Venezuela this week as promised, strongman Nicolás Maduro has mobilized the country’s military, sending soldiers to patrol the streets in major cities and carrying out new arrests of opponents or individuals he calls mercenaries.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro looks on during a meeting of leaders of the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America and the Treaty of Commerce and Promotion (ALBA-TCP),

The democratic opposition, led by María Corina Machado, has led a courageous and peaceful campaign against Maduro’s fraud, providing evidence via copies of official tally sheets from polling stations to show that opposition candidate Edmundo González won the election by a margin of more than two to one.