Can Venezuela's political crisis affect migration and U.S. politics?

The crisis in Venezuela has resulted in the world’s largest mass migration in recent history: More than 7.7 million people have left the country since 2014, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees.

The current protests and tensions following Sunday’s election and the impasse over who was legitimately elected raise questions about whether more Venezuelans will be leaving the country.

The U.S. has recognized opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as the president-elect, based on evidence the opposition released this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday night.

But Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government insists he won though it hasn’t released all the voting machine tallies to prove this — something the U.S. and other countries are urging the government to do.

The U.S. State Department, through a spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said this week that “the international community, including the United States, is running out of patience waiting for Venezuelan electoral authorities to be honest and publish complete and detailed data on the elections so that “everyone can see the results."

After 25 years of autocratic rule, a significant portion of Venezuelans in the country and in exile had enormous expectations of change.

But the announcement by the National Electoral Committee (CNE) giving victory to Maduro could now cement despair and worsen the exodus.

More than 40% of Venezuelans surveyed before the election said they would consider leaving the country if Maduro remained in power.

“I think we are going to see days of protests, the regime will seek to repress them or simply wait for them to subside” without addressing the complaints, and then people may see no other option but