Venezuela | Opposition leader demonstrates to claim victory

(Caracas) The leader of the Venezuelan opposition reappeared Saturday to lead a demonstration of thousands of supporters in Caracas and contest the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, whose supporters also gathered to “celebrate the victory.”

“We have never been as strong as today” and “the regime has never been so weak,” said Maria Corina Machado, who said on Thursday that she was “hiding” and fearing for her life.

Declared ineligible by the government, she claims victory for her candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who replaced her at short notice for the July 28 election and who the United States and several Latin American countries recognize as the designated president.

“We are not going to leave the streets,” the opponent swore in front of her supporters, surrounded by a discreet police deployment.

Acclaimed with cries of “Freedom! Freedom!”, M^me Machado, who had not appeared in public since Tuesday, arrived at the rally in an upscale Caracas neighborhood on a truck and waved a Venezuelan flag at length in front of her supporters. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was not present.

“I feel hope seeing her despite the threats, she is a light for Venezuela,” Adrian Pacheco, a 26-year-old trader, told AFP.

“We are not terrorists. We will go all the way” is the message written on a small placard held up by Jezzy Ramos, 36, a cook and mother of one daughter, repeating the words “all the way” which are one of the opposition’s slogans. “This dictatorship will fall,” she assures.

Supporters of the government gathered in their thousands in the city centre to march to the presidential palace in the name of “national peace”.

It must be “the mother” of “all marches to celebrate victory”, according to the head of state, heir to the socialist leader Hugo Chavez and since 2013 at the head of a country plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis.

At least 12 dead

Unsurprisingly, the electoral authority confirmed on Friday the re-election of Nicolas Maduro for a third term until 2031, with 52% of the votes against Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia (43%), without giving the detailed results.

But, according to the opposition’s tally, Mr Gonzalez won 67% of the vote.

At least 11 civilians and one soldier were killed and more than 1,200 people arrested during spontaneous protests that broke out across the country in the two days following the vote.

The opposition, which denounces “brutal repression”, speaks of 20 deaths and 11 forced disappearances.

On Friday, it denounced the ransacking of its headquarters in Caracas during the night by a group of armed and hooded men, as well as the “arbitrary detention” of one of its leaders, the journalist Roland Carreño, arrested in the capital.

” Rebellion ”

For his part, Mr. Maduro on Friday once again vehemently attacked his adversaries, this “assassinator of Gonzalez” and the “cursed Maria” Machado, whom he had already threatened to imprison.

Referring to the protests that followed the vote, he condemned a “premeditated plan” by “fascists”, “criminals and drug addicts” who attacked the “symbols of Bolivarian Chavism”.

Nicolas Maduro has continued to deride the “coup d’état” led according to him “by the United States and the international extreme right” since his contested re-election.

US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken acknowledged the opposition’s victory on Thursday, citing “indisputable evidence.”

In the wake of this, five Latin American countries recognized the election of the opponent on Friday, also speaking of “indisputable proof” of his victory.

Peru was the first country on Tuesday to prompt Caracas to break off diplomatic relations with Lima.

On the other hand, Nicaragua, one of the faithful allies of the Chavista power along with Russia and Iran in particular, recognized Mr. Maduro’s victory.

The Venezuelan leader finally “thanked” the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who “are working together so that Venezuela is respected and that the United States does not do what they are doing,” in the words of Mr. Maduro.

These three countries, which maintain good relations with Chavist Venezuela, have requested “an impartial verification of the results” of the election.