Caracas, Jul 31 (EFE).- Thousands of Chavistas mobilized this Wednesday in Caracas in support of the official result of Sunday’s presidential elections, which gave the president Nicolas Maduro, without all the minutes counted, a controversial rejected victory by the majority opposition and questioned by a large part of the international community.
Supporters of the ruling party, some of them public employees, marched with clothing, banners, elements and images alluding to Chavismo, while chanting slogans in favor of the president and demonstrating against alleged “destabilizing attempts” attributed to the opposition.
The Chavistas approached the Miraflores Palace -headquarters of the Executive-, where they were to be received by the head of State, who appeared a couple of hours later, during which time several of them did not wait for their leader to leave and left, as confirmed by EFE.
Maduro came out minutes after 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT) on a balcony, from where he accused, once again, the presidential candidate of the largest opposition bloc – the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) -, Edmundo González Urrutia, and his supporter María Corina Machado of trying to “to impose a destabilizing plan supported” by the United States, without showing any evidence.
He also assured that he was “consolidating peace in Venezuela” with actions to stop “fascists and criminals,” among which he mentioned the more than 1,000 arrests of «criminals» that «attacked» public facilities.
Previously, in a press conference, the Chavista leader said that González Urrutia and Machado “they had to be behind bars,” a call made on Tuesday by the president of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), the official Jorge Rodríguez.
The president has called for the maximum and constant mobilization of Chavismo after thousands of citizens affiliated with the majority opposition protested since Monday against the official result of the elections, issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which declared Maduro the winner by just over 704,114 votes compared to Gonzalez Urrutia, when more than two million votes remained to be counted, which could change the final results.
The PUD claims to have more than 80% of the minutes thanks to the work of witnesses and members of the polling station, which – it asserts – give González Urrutia the victory by a wide margin, and that citizens who voted can consult them on a website set up by the opposition sector, for which they only need their identity document number.
The Carter Center, which participated as an observer in the elections, stated on Tuesday that the process “did not conform” to the international parameters and standards of electoral integrity, so “cannot be considered a democratic election.”