Caracas, Aug 6 (EFE).- At least 2,229 people have been arrested in Venezuela in the context of the protests unleashed after the presidential elections of July 28, whose official result ratified Nicolas Maduro as re-elected president, according to a balance offered this Tuesday by the Chavista leader, who called «terrorists» to those arrested.
In a televised event, the president announced that the authorities will transfer the detainees to the Tocorón and Tocuyito prisons, emptied in September and October of last year, respectively, and prepared – according to Maduro – for to imprison “all the new generation gangs that are involved in the guarimbas (violent protests).”
«They are already going for 2,229 terrorists captured, with evidence, and on Saturday they will be transferred to Tocorón and Tocuyito, Tocorón and Tocuyito are ready for the terrorists, for the criminals,” said the president, who received dozens of senior citizens who support him outside the presidential palace, in an event broadcast by the state channel VTV.
He noted that the detainees «attacked» and «they murdered» people -without specifying the number- and They “burned” hospitals, schools, high schools and universities, as well as police modules, mayors’ offices and headquarters of the ruling PSUV party, among other actions, for which he held the standard-bearer of the majority opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia, and the anti-Chavez leader responsible Maria Corina Machado.
According to the government, at least 59 police officers and 47 members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) were injured, while two soldiers died.
According to the NGO Provea, these two fatalities are added to: 24 civilians killed, some of them «murdered» by members of the public force or irregular armed groups, an assertion that has not been confirmed or commented on by the authorities.
The majority opposition, grouped in the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), insists that the winner of the elections was Gonzalez Urrutia, and is based on the «83.5%» from the minutes that he claims to have obtained thanks to electoral witnesses and table members.
Machado and González Urrutia on Monday asked the military and police in Venezuela to prevent what they consider a “coup” given by Maduro, who – according to what they said – wants to make the troops “partners in crime” of this operation, and “enforcing the results”which was rejected on Tuesday by the FANB and the security forces, who considered these calls as “seditious approaches.”
