Nicolas Maduro re-elected | Venezuelan opposition leader calls for protests on Saturday

(Caracas) Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called for demonstrations on Saturday “in all cities” of the country to denounce the fraud that, according to her, allowed the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro.

“We must remain firm, organized and mobilized with the pride of having obtained a historic victory” on Sunday, declared Mr.^me Machado in a video posted on social media Thursday, promising to go “all the way.”

“The world will see the strength and determination of a society determined to live in freedom,” added the opponent, who claims the overwhelming victory of her candidate, the discreet diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, in the July 28 election.

“I remain firmly on the side of the people. I will never leave you alone, I will always defend your will,” wrote Gonzalez Urrutia on XM, who like M^me Machado is under threat of arrest by Mr Maduro and has not appeared in public since Tuesday.

Earlier on Thursday, M^me Machado had assured that she “feared for her life” and was forced to “hide.”

“I could be captured as I write these words,” she said in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

An opposition source told AFP that the leader “is safe.”

“After this farce, spontaneous demonstrations broke out, especially in poor neighborhoods of Caracas and other cities. Mr. Maduro responded with brutal repression,” according to M^me Machado: This repression “must stop immediately, so that an urgent agreement can be reached to facilitate the transition to democracy,” she concluded.

On Wednesday, the opposition leader, declared ineligible by the government and who had been replaced at short notice by Mr. Gozalez Urrutia, had already launched an appeal to Venezuelans to take to the streets, the first of its kind since the start of this crisis.

” I count on you ! ”

More than 1,200 people were arrested and a dozen killed in spontaneous protests that broke out across the country in the two days following the vote. The opposition reported 20 deaths and 11 forced disappearances.

Heir to the socialist and Bolivarian leader Hugo Chavez, Mr. Maduro, 61, in power since 2013, was re-elected for a third term until 2031, at the end of Sunday’s election won with 51.2% of the vote against 44.2% for his opponent, according to official results.

The National Electoral Council (CNE), which reported a hack, has not published the detailed results by polling station, while the opposition says it has gathered more than 80% of the ballot papers. According to this count, Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia received 67% of the votes.

M^me Machado and candidate Urrutia denounced “massive fraud” and demanded that the ballots be recounted in a transparent manner, a demand echoed by many Western countries, but also in Latin America.

Mr Maduro threatened on Wednesday to put the two opposition leaders “behind bars”, swearing that his opponents would “never come to power”.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which Mr. Maduro has asked to “certify” the election results, has summoned all 10 candidates — including the president and Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia — to a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Friday. “I will be there, and I hope all the candidates will be there,” Mr. Maduro said.

Stock up

On Thursday, life returned to near normal in Caracas, and public transport was running again.

“Life is returning to normal. I come home from work and buy a few things to eat for home,” Reinaldo Garcia, 55, a small businessman in the working-class Petare neighborhood, told AFP.

“We don’t know what might happen. With this uncertainty, people are stocking up. Like everyone else, I went out to do some shopping, sugar, a bit of everything. The country is in limbo,” commented Carmen, 50, still in Petare.

Funerals of several of the protesters took place, such as that of Victor Bustos, who was shot in the chest in Valencia (north), the country’s third largest city.

“They took his life unjustly,” said the relatives of the 35-year-old worker.

“With speed”

According to the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal, 46 people were arrested in Valencia, some of whom were “transferred to military sites completely illegally,” according to the same NGO.

According to Attorney General Tarek William Saab, 1,062 people have been arrested for “fascist behavior” and face up to 30 years in prison.

Mr Maduro announced that two high-security prisons were being prepared to house the protesters. “We have captured 1,200, we are looking for another 1,000 and we are going to catch them all,” he promised in statements on national television, accusing the protesters of wanting to “turn Venezuela into a new Haiti”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cited “compelling evidence” of an opposition presidential victory in a statement released Thursday. Maduro responded by calling on the United States to “get its nose out of Venezuela.”

Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, all three of which have relatively good relations with Chavist Venezuela, called on Thursday for “an impartial verification of the results” and this “with speed”.