In Venezuela, a month after Nicolas Maduro’s contested victory in the presidential election, his opponents are back on the streets

The protests continued on Wednesday in the capital Caracas with a fourth demonstration since the election. A smaller procession than during the previous mobilization, but galvanized by the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

The mobilization continues in Venezuela, where the opposition is still claiming victory for its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a month after the election officially won by Nicolas Maduro. A rally took place on Wednesday, August 28 in the capital Caracas, in the presence of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is living in hiding because she is threatened with arrest by the authorities, as have already been several members of her team.

For this fourth meeting since the election, there were a few thousand in Caracas to listen to the speech of their leader, who appeared as always from nowhere, wearing a black hooded sweater. Her supporters say they are ready to do anything to have their vote respected.

“We don’t know how long we have, but we will go all the way! assures a protester. There is no alternative, we must fight at all costs. If we want a prosperous country, if we want to get the economy back on its feet, with public services that work, we must go all the way.” “We will do what Maria Corina tells us!” says another protester.

“We also have work to do: continue to mobilize in the streets to put an end to this dictatorship.”

A protester

to franceinfo

Because it is indeed the leader Maria Corina Machado who has been keeping this mobilization alive for a month. Her radical personality brings together: “I remember when the results were announced, it was a cold shower, says this opponent. But with the leadership of Maria Corina Machado, morale has returned. Everything we do, peacefully, is to bring out the truth. And then we will claim ‘our due’ as she says, on January 10th Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia will be sworn in!”

But a month after the election, the mobilization is decreasing, there were fewer of them on Wednesday than at previous rallies. And fear certainly has something to do with it. “We have never seen such repression, which has resulted in more than 2 000 arrests. And these are not simple police custody, these are prison sentences of five, ten or 20 years.” For this Franco-Venezuelan, the government is dropping its masks after several years of trying to rebuild its international reputation. “He openly told Venezuelan society and the whole world what its nature and essence were: deeply authoritarian, anti-democratic, anti-popular, and totally dictatorial.”

The challenge for the opposition: to remain mobilized while the government seems more inflexible than ever and no way out of the crisis is in sight for the moment.