A member of the opposition commanders tells AFP that six motorized vehicles surrounded him in the early morning when he left the voting center in a popular sector of Caracas.
Accused of being “terrorists” by the authorities, the commanders organized by opposition leader María Corina Machado for “the defense of the vote” in the presidential elections on July 28 have gone underground after denouncing fraud.
The commandos are groups of volunteers that the opposition created during the electoral campaign with the aim of mobilizing voters in the July 28 elections and safeguarding the electoral records that are delivered to witnesses from the political parties.
Its members were in charge of logistical tasks such as transporting citizens to the voting centers or bringing food to witnesses during the day.
After the protests over the proclamation of Nicolás Maduro for a third consecutive term (2025-2031), which left 27 dead and more than 2,400 detained, the ruler himself described them as “criminals”, linking them to acts of violence and an attempt to “coup d’état.”
Fearful of being accused of terrorism, which can lead to the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison in Venezuela, José, a member of the commandos, left public political activity after the military pointed their weapons at him and unknown people threatened him in the street.
The opposition claims that thanks to the commanders it gathered 80% of the voting records, which it published on a website, with which it claims a victory for the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, exiled in Spain after an arrest warrant against him. Maduro suggested that Machado also left the country, a scenario that the leader denied on Wednesday, October 17, in a television interview.
*Read Also: Protect integrity and project: clandestinity is activated by political violence
The CNE, which declared the president the winner, has not published a detailed scrutiny, as required by law.
José relates that six motorcycle riders surrounded him in the early morning when he left the voting center in a popular sector of Caracas where he served as an “observer” for the opposition.
«They told me: ‘you go for it with passion. “We saw you leaving the voting center,” he comments to the AFP this 61 year old man.
He avoided confronting them, since he had three minutes printed by the machines of the automated system of the National Electoral Council (CNE) and he had to scan them to send them to Machado’s campaign command, which digitized them and then uploaded them to the internet.
José delivered the minutes on July 31, the day Machado called to protest at the UN headquarters in Caracas with those documents in hand. The leader herself received many ballots directly.
The man says that, at the end of the rally, a group of soldiers detained several protesters. Two uniformed officers approached him and pointed their tear gas weapons directly at him, without saying a word, although in the end they let him go.
“That’s where I said: ‘no, I have to go,'” he says.
Their fears grew when Maduro called on citizens to report anyone they saw carrying out “guarimbas” (violent protests). He was hidden for two weeks.
Now, José avoids speaking about politics in public and meets virtually. “I’m still afraid,” he laments.
The government claims that its adversaries “forged” the minutes that appear on the website. José denies it: “I marked them, I know how I marked them and that’s how they appear on the page.”
Monitored opposition
The commandos were key during the opposition campaign and on voting day.
“My commando supported food logistics, both for opposition and ruling party witnesses,” said an 86-year-old activist who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Another, who also asked to protect her identity, says that after the mass arrests began, even in the place of residence of those arrested, what she does is go from “her home to work and from work to home.”
“I haven’t wanted to go out because I feel like they are chasing us, watching us, and my children ask me not to continue, to take care of myself, that there is nothing more that can be done,” declared this woman.
Some members of the commandos fled the country, according to several people consulted by the AFP. Others had their passports cancelled.
Although the protests have diminished, María Corina Machado assures that some commanders are regrouping and promises that Edmundo González Urrutia will return to Venezuela to take office on January 10.
“I know we are going to make it,” José says, convinced.
Post Views: 40
