July 25, 2024, 10:37 PM
July 25, 2024, 10:37 PM
“I’m going to my rooster Nico!”, “Edmundo president!”: thousands of supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition flooded Caracas on Thursday for the closing of the campaign for this Sunday’s elections, watched with concern by the region.
Maduro, in power since 2013, is seeking a third six-year term. His main rival is Edmundo González Urrutia, who appears to be the favourite in the polls with the support of disqualified opposition leader María Corina Machado.
“We are back in the streets, from end to end!” the president said to a crowd that filled the emblematic Avenida Bolívar. “People in the streets saying: victory, popular victory!”
“We have formed a new political, social and cultural majority, which will be expressed with a resounding electoral majority (…), we have not only united Chavismo, we are all united without a single fissure, a single block of force,” he added.
Earlier, Maduro led an event in Maracaibo, capital of the oil-producing state of Zulia, where he promised victory, brandishing a sword belonging to Venezuelan hero Simon Bolivar.
González Urrutia and Machado closed the campaign in the commercial Las Mercedes neighborhood, whose main avenue was packed. “Yes we can, yes we can!” shouted the people as the truck with a platform passed by, from which they both waved.
“Long live free Venezuela!” Machado shouted to the crowd as he raised his right hand to Gonzalez. “We are ready to vote and win!” he added.
“This is the time for change in Venezuela,” said Alan Berríos, a 24-year-old motorcycle taxi driver and food delivery man who attended the opposition rally.
“Rooster always”
In the campaign, Maduro presents himself as a “gallo pinto”, a fighting bird, who faces a “gallo pataruco” or weakling, as he calls González Urrutia.
“The rooster represents him well,” Sujei Rodriguez, a 38-year-old housewife, told AFP. “He has been fighting since he got on the horse… he has always been a rooster, no matter how difficult it is,” added the woman, who painted her own rooster on a poster, upturned and in the colours of the Venezuelan flag: yellow, blue and red.
At the opposition march, Ramón Ramírez, 60, was ordering a hot dog at an informal stand. “I’m going to eat just one to leave room for the rooster we’re going to eat on Sunday,” he joked. “There’s no way they’re going to steal the election from us.”
Maduro accuses the opposition of planning to ignore the results in order to launch acts of violence. He has also said that the Armed Forces, which he claims are loyal to him, could rise up against a possible opposition government.
“I choose Nicolas,” read the shirt of Raibert Pacheco, 28. “This is a feeling that runs through our veins,” said the Chavista community leader.
Complaints against public employees of being forced to attend these demonstrations are, however, common. Some pro-government supporters told AFP that they went “under duress.”
“Historical advantage”
The election will take place amid questions from the presidents of Brazil and Chile, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gabriel Boric, about recent comments by Maduro about the possibility of a “bloodbath” if he loses the election.
The United States has warned that “political repression” and “violence are unacceptable,” according to John Kirby, spokesman for Homeland Security, who said he hoped the vote “reflects the will and aspirations of the people.”
Washington, along with the European Union and some Latin American countries, rejected Maduro’s re-election in 2018, following allegations of fraud by the opposition.
“We have a historic advantage,” González said earlier. “We are going to win and collect (the victory), and we trust that our Armed Forces will enforce the will of our people” at the polls.
The Armed Forces, however, are questioned by experts.
Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino denied on Wednesday that the military would be an electoral “referee.”
“While Venezuela’s elections are unlikely to be free or fair, Venezuelans have their best chance in more than a decade to elect their own government. The international community should support them,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.
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© Agence France-Presse
