The Venezuelan opposition, which has called for rallies across the country and abroad on Saturday to claim victory in the presidential election at the end of July, is urging Venezuelans to “continue the fight” against President Nicolas Maduro, who has been declared the winner, and whose supporters will also demonstrate.
“It is extremely dangerous, but here everyone must continue the fight and keep their strength,” said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in a social media interview on Friday.
“All that remains on the diet […] “Knowing themselves to be naked” means “lies, repression, violence and demoralization. Demoralization is the strategy of the regime,” says the opponent who has been living in hiding for a fortnight.
The announcement of Mr Maduro’s re-election for a third term sparked spontaneous protests, with 25 deaths, 192 injuries and 2,400 arrests according to official sources.
The opposition, which has so far only organised one mobilisation, on 3 August, has called for large demonstrations throughout the country, but also in more than 300 cities abroad.
During the mobilization at the beginning of August, Mme Machado had arrived by truck and then, at the end of the trip, had jumped on a motorbike and quickly disappeared.
Saturday’s demonstration is “very important. It will be a historic day […] It’s about uniting a whole country […] “We have united a country and tomorrow is the time. There is no turning back and we will go all the way together,” she added, calling for people to attend the demonstrations with their families.
The government has planned a “Great National March for Peace and in Support of the Victory of Our President Nicolas Maduro” in the afternoon in Caracas.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified Mr Maduro’s victory with 52% of the vote in early August, without providing the exact count or the minutes of the polling stations, claiming to have been the victim of computer hacking.
“Authoritarian tendency”
According to the opposition, which has made public the minutes obtained through its scrutineers, its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who had replaced Mr.me Machado, who was declared ineligible, won the presidential election with 67% of the vote, a result rejected by Mr Maduro.
The opposition and many observers do not believe the hacking theory, believing it to be a fabrication to avoid having to disclose the exact vote count.
Much of the international community was also skeptical after the CNE announced the official results.
The European Union, as an organization, and 22 countries including Argentina, Canada and Spain, demanded on Friday in a joint statement read in Santo Domingo during the inauguration of the Dominican President, Luis Abinader, “the immediate publication of all original minutes and the independent and impartial verification of these results, preferably by an international entity, in order to guarantee respect for the will of the Venezuelan people.”
Most of these countries had already spoken out in a similar manner on the subject.
The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States approved a resolution on Friday also asking Caracas to “promptly publish the minutes with the results of the vote of the election of each polling station.”
In Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also demanded the “minutes”: “What I am asking for is to recognize [le vainqueur]it is at least to know if the figures are true. Where are the minutes?
He said Friday that Mr Maduro’s government had an “authoritarian bent” although he did not consider it a “dictatorship”.
Lula also returned to his proposal to organize new elections: “The opposition did not like the idea […] Maduro didn’t like it either.”
President Maduro once again dismissed criticism from abroad: “We do not accept imposition, nor interventionism, nor anyone putting their dirty hands in our beloved country.”
He then quipped: “We are preparing the delegation of election observers for the November 5 elections in the United States. A commission of Venezuelan experts is going there and we are going to check office by office!”