September 28, 2024, 9:30 PM
September 28, 2024, 9:30 PM
The opposition concentrated in small assemblies in Venezuela and in other cities of the world denounced fraud this Saturday two months after the elections, while hundreds of Chavismo supporters marched in Caracas to claim the victory of leftist president Nicolás Maduro.
From Madrid, where he went into exile since September 8 after spending more than a month in hiding, Edmundo González Urrutia, candidate who replaced opposition leader María Corina Machado, greeted a group of Venezuelans by displaying a flag of his country.
“In Puerta del Sol (center of Madrid) the winner of the elections in Venezuela”said one of the leaders of the activity. Small demonstrations were replicated in other cities in Venezuela and several countries.
Maduro, for his part, celebrated that two months before the elections his government is “standing” and “victorious.”
“We are not in Madrid, we are not enconchados (hidden), we are in the street,” Maduro ironically called his rival in the presidential elections a “coward” and assured that Machado is preparing to leave the country, something that the leader has ruled out.
Machado, in hiding after denouncing fraud in the elections, called for neighborhood assemblies to protest the “fraud”in what he called a new phase of protest away from mass gatherings to “have a lower risk” in the midst of the “brutal repression.”
The leader communicated through a live video on social networks with the Venezuelans concentrated in Madrid.
“Here we are firm, moving forward, every day with more strength and more desire, we gathered here as brave and good Venezuela,” Machado said earlier in an audio note released by his team.
The re-election of the leftist president after the July 28 electionsis unknown to the opposition, which denounces fraud and claims the victory of its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, with 67% of the votes.
Maduro, meanwhile, was proclaimed the winner with 52% of the votes by the pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE), which until now has not disclosed the detailed results of the scrutiny, as required by law.
The opposition, led by Machado, published on a website copies of about 80% of the electoral records, which would prove González Urrutia’s victory.
“On July 28, the Venezuelan people issued a sovereign, clear and unappealable mandate, in favor of change, peace, freedom and democracy. A mandate that must be recognized,” said González Urrutia on his social networks.
Fear of going outside
“Nicolás Maduro should leave because he lost,” said Leída Brito, known as the ‘Grandma of the Red Helmet’, while waving a banner with the minutes of the electoral center where she voted in a square in Caracas. “Edmundo González won,” he remarked.
“Defending the vote is a right”captured in the poster this opposition member who has been attending anti-government demonstrations for years.
Retired military officer Hidalgo Valero, present at the same assembly that Brito attended, referred to what happened “as the biggest fraud in history.”
“We have the freedom of Venezuela in danger,” he told AFP. “Today our people are afraid to be on the streets because there is tremendous repression, there is a terrible violation of human rights, but this should not stop us,” he added.
In the city of Buenos Aires, hundreds of Venezuelans gathered, displaying messages such as: “Surrender is not an option”, “Free Venezuela” and “Until the end.” Present at the rally, the Minister of Security of Argentina, Patricia Bullrich, reiterated the support of President Javier Milei’s government for a “free Venezuela.”
Dozens of Venezuelans in Uruguay gathered in the central Plaza Independencia in Montevideo.
On Thursday, around thirty countries led by the United States and Argentina urged Venezuelan political leaders to begin “constructive and inclusive” negotiations with a view to a “transition with guarantees” to resolve the political crisis.
They also called for an end to the “generalized repression” against the opposition and “the abuses and violations of human rights” during protests against Maduro’s re-election that left 27 dead, 200 injured and some 2,400 detained, including 164 teenagers.
