Flags and minutes in hand, the Venezuelan opposition took to the streets on Saturday to demand “victory” in the July presidential election against President Nicolas Maduro, who was declared the winner and whose supporters also planned to march.
Thousands of people greeted the arrival in eastern Caracas of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, dressed in her traditional white top and perched on the bed of a truck.
She had climbed onto the vehicle a few hundred metres further on, wrapped in a black hooded coat.
“Freedom” and “Edmundo para todo el mundo” (Edmundo for all) shouted the crowd as he arrived. Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who has not been seen in public since July 30, was not immediately present, however.
Many of the protesters are waving Venezuelan flags or copies of the “minutes” of the polling stations, which the opposition and part of the international community are demanding be published.
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.
The opposition and many observers question the reality of this computer hacking.
According to the opposition, which made public the electoral documents obtained through its scrutineers, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who replaced Maria Corina Machado who was declared ineligible, won 67% of the vote.
“Very scared”
“If we remain silent, it doesn’t make sense. It makes sense to honor the dead, the lives that were lost because of a criminal government that wants to entrench itself in power,” Adriana Calzadilla, 55, a teacher and artist, told AFP, wearing a cap on which copies of the minutes of the meeting are pasted. “This moment is historic,” she enthuses.
“I’m going out today to get back what’s mine […] “I’m very scared, but this fear keeps me going, it doesn’t paralyze me,” says Alejandra, another teacher, aged 47, who prefers to remain anonymous.
A significant security presence has been deployed in the capital, AFP journalists noted.
“This is a historic day […]”We must remain firm and united,” Machado said on social media before the demonstration.
“We have the votes, we have the records, we have the support of the international community and we have Venezuelans determined to fight for our country,” wrote Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia on X.
The announcement of Mr Maduro’s re-election for a third term sparked spontaneous protests, which were brutally repressed. Officials say 25 people died, 192 were injured and 2,400 were arrested.
The opposition, which has so far only organised one demonstration, on 3 August, has called for large demonstrations on Saturday across the country and in more than 300 cities abroad.
The kick-off was in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, where protesters gathered waving Venezuelan flags. Photos of rallies are pouring in from around the world on social media.
Great National March
The government, for its part, has planned a “major national march for peace” in Caracas in the afternoon. Hundreds of motorcyclists gathered in the west of the capital, in Petare, not far from the opposition rally site.
Hundreds of other supporters also began marching in the town of San Fernando de Apure, according to state television footage.
Much of the international community has been skeptical after the CNE announced the official results. The European Union, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), Brazil and 22 countries called in separate statements on Friday for the “minutes” to be published.
President Maduro has once again brushed aside criticism from abroad: “We do not accept […] neither interventionism nor anyone putting their dirty hands in our beloved country.” He then quipped: “We are preparing the election observer delegation for the November 5 elections in the United States.”