MADRID, Spain.- The number of deaths in Venezuela due to the protests that began on July 29 in rejection of Nicolás Maduro and his electoral fraud has now risen to 13. The figure was confirmed by the platform Victim Monitor, who has shared names and ages of the fatal victims.
In addition, the director of the NGO Criminal ForumAlfredo Romero, explained in a press conference that among the dead there are two minors. “There are eleven people who died in these protests. Five of these people were killed in Caracas, two in the state of Zulia (northwest), two in Yaracuy (west), one in Aragua (north) and another in Táchira. We are concerned about the use of firearms in these demonstrations,” he declared.
After the conference, the media Infobae confirmed that at least two other people lost their lives: A young man was shot and died in Guarenas; while another protester lost his life in the state of Carabobo.
State security forces and armed groups known as colectivos have repressed the demonstrations with extreme violence. Of the 13 deaths, four have been attributed to these colectivos, who, according to various reports, act with impunity and under the protection of the Chavista regime.
The Penal Forum indicated that, so far, there have been around 177 arrests, the majority in Caracas, with 38; followed by the state of Barinas (west), with 27; and Zulia, with 19. The members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB, militarized police) and agents of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB), in addition to “armed groups linked to the State,” generated “a wave of repression,” according to the NGO.
The cities most affected by violence have been Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia, where the most incidents have been recorded.
In these demonstrations, a symbolic act has gained relevance: the destruction of statues of the late former president Hugo Chávez in the states of Falcon, Guarico, Vargas, Carabobo and Aragua.
In addition to statues of Chavez, protesters have destroyed and burned images of Nicolas Maduro, reiterating their opposition to the election result and the permanence of Chavismo in power.
On Tuesday night, the Carter Center, which acted as an observer in the Venezuelan presidential elections on Sunday, declared that the votes did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and therefore “cannot be considered democratic.”
In the document, the organization emphasized that it was unable to verify the results declared by the National Electoral Council (CNE) due to the “lack of transparency in the publication of results broken down by polling station,” which it considers a “serious violation of electoral principles.”
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