At the cry of “we are not afraid”, A crowd defied the Chavista regime in its face on Saturday with marches in Caracas and in other cities in Venezuela and around the world. Maria Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition alliance, led the event in the capital, saying that “we will not leave the streets, it is our right.”
“This is the time to collect… it means that Every vote is respected“There is nothing above the voice of the sovereign and the sovereign spoke on July 28,” he warned.
Machado – in hiding under threat of jail – appeared in a truck on Miranda Avenue near Petare, the largest slum in Venezuela. After The regime’s police unusually stole that vehicle specially prepared for use in the campaign.
The opposition released thousands of minutes of the elections, considered reliable by European powers, among other countries, which certify a broad victory for opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. Machado said that these records were obtained with the help of the military who guarded the event and other prosecutors from the ruling party, a fact that shows the general support that the dissidents received.
Until today the National Electoral Council that controls the regime, does not display minutes or figures disaggregated from the votes attributed to the autocrat Nicolás Maduro.
Also yesterday, Chavismo gathered a column of motorcyclists to show support. The case is in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice, whose judges have been members of the regime’s party. In Venezuela There is no separation of powers And in reality all officials answer to Maduro and his inner circle, legal experts denounce.
The TSJ carries out a “technical appraisal” of the minutes to issue a ruling that is taken for granted: has already congratulated Maduro as president-elect.
“We have the evidence of fraud”
“Hurry up!” shouted Corina Machado, while the crowd chanted the phrase “Let them print false records, because they will give us the evidence of fraud. “We have the proof of victory,” he added. “There must be an independent international verification because nobody believes in this farce they are carrying out. This maneuver is an admission of defeat so they don’t have to give the results,” he said.
He asked to put into context what the opposition has achieved since July 28. “Today we made history,” he said about the protest that spread to 373 cities around the world and Venezuela. “We are feeling the strength of the brave people united in the streets.”
The mobilizations were very broad in Buenos Aires, Bogota and Peruthese last two countries with the majority of the 8 million Venezuelans who fled the regime. There were also significant protests in all the cities of Europe and even in Asia.
“Today we Venezuelans have taken the flag in one hand and the minutes in the other,” said Machado, describing his movement as “the greatest civic feat in the history of Venezuela.”
“We are stronger than ever and the regime is weaker than ever,” he stressed. “What happened surprised a regime that is totally disconnected “from reality,” he said, stating that “in his fatal arrogance the tyrant never imagined” that these millions of Venezuelans would go out to vote and “70% voted for Edmundo.”
“They were wrong, they thought we would be afraid or have doubts. They thought that by persecuting our witnesses we were not going to get our records. And In 24 hours we did it“Never before has a society rebelled in this way and stripped the tyrant bare to the point of leaving him without any legitimacy,” he said.
It was a major demonstration amid the persecution of opponents by the regime’s campaign of terror. There are about 2,000 prisoners, most of them activists, and ordinary people who came out to protest peacefully. All are prosecuted on charges of “terrorism”, “fascism” and “treason”.
“We’re screwed but here we go”
“We are scared but Here we go” said a woman who was walking to the demonstration before Machado arrived. “People are scared, this madman ordered everyone to be shot,” agreed a man in the lower area of Petare (a district like La Matanza in Buenos Aires), where commercial life continued this Saturday.
Earlier, tanks and cordons of soldiers They had fenced off the exits from that neighborhood, a tangle of shantytowns where some 500,000 people live.
“This is the time to cash in,” insisted Maria Corina in her speech with a microphone that was not very effective. “We didn’t hear her well, but it doesn’t matter, because now we look for her on social networks,” commented some young people who were returning home.
The mood among the protesters showed a prudent enthusiasm. They felt their presence there was a challenge, groups of families and friends formed, greeted each other, took photos. Many activists showed lists of political prisoners, others demanded better salaries; some displayed copies of voting records from July 28.
Around and within the crowd, street vendors offered cold beers, ice cream, pennants, caps, whistles and vuvuzelas. The atmosphere was reminiscent of the mass demonstrations of 2017, when for 5 months The opposition put Maduro in check, and he would end up responding with more radicalism. Thousands were arrested and about 150 were killed.
Machado denounced that “a group of high military command” has unleashed the worst repression ever remembered in Venezuela, they have dragged witnesses from their homes and punished soldiers who have refused to repress, in order to spread terror and keep people from going out.