Opposition mobilises in Venezuela after protests leave 12 people dead
Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Venezuela shouting ‘Freedom!’ to claim victory at the polls for their candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who in turn urged not to repress the people after protests that left at least 12 dead and hundreds arrested.
Chanting ‘Freedom, freedom!’, supporters of González Urrutia and opposition leader María Corina Machado rallied in Caracas and other cities on Tuesday to dispute the results of Sunday's presidential election, which the pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) said gave a third term to leftist Maduro.
‘We have to stay on the streets, we can't allow them to steal our votes so blatantly. This has to change,’ Carley Patiño, a 47-year-old administrator, told AFP.
The opposition says it has the evidence to prove its victory. Machado claims to have in her possession copies of 84% of the tally sheets proving the alleged fraud, and posted them on a website.
Meanwhile, the international community is pressing for a transparent recount. The presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the United States, Joe Biden, agreed in calling for the ‘immediate’ release of the vote tallies, saying that the Venezuelan elections represent ‘a critical moment for democracy in the hemisphere’.
The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, expressed himself along the same lines on Wednesday, calling for ‘immediate access to the voting records of all polling stations’.
‘Until the authorities publish the minutes and they are verified, the results announced cannot be recognised,’ Borrell insisted.
For The Carter Center, the presidential election did not meet ‘international parameters and standards of electoral integrity’.
‘It cannot be considered democratic,’ the Carter Center, which was invited by the CNE to observe the elections, said in a statement.
Peru recognised González Urrutia as the ‘legitimate’ president-elect of Venezuela, which led the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, to inform X of the rupture of relations with Peru.
Later, the Peruvian presidency said it ‘regrets’ the decision and pointed out that Caracas had taken it ‘in the face of the impossibility of reliably demonstrating its attributed electoral triumph, by exhibiting all the electoral records with international verification as requested by the countries and multiple international organisations’.
‘I hold him responsible’
At the rally in Caracas, González Urrutia called on the military to remain calm in the face of the demonstrations. ‘Gentlemen of the Armed Forces: there is no reason whatsoever to repress the people of Venezuela, there is no reason whatsoever for so much persecution,’ he said.
Maduro held González Urrutia and Machado responsible for the violence in the demonstrations, and assured that ‘justice will come’.
‘I hold you responsible, Mr González Urrutia, for everything that is happening in Venezuela, for the criminal violence, for the criminals, for the injured, for the dead, for the destruction,’ he said on Tuesday.
‘Justice will be done against devils and demons. There will be justice. Come out of your lair, Mr. Coward,’ Maduro shouted afterwards, referring to González Urrutia and Machado, in front of hundreds of supporters who marched to the Miraflores presidential palace.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, and the head of EU diplomacy called for respect for the peaceful protest of opponents.
‘Alarming death toll‘
The human rights organisation Foro Penal counts at least 11 civilians killed in the protests, including two minors.
‘We are concerned about the use of firearms in these demonstrations, that in a single day there have been eleven deaths in demonstrations is an alarming figure,’ said Alfredo Romero, director of Foro Penal.
The attorney general, Tarek William Saab, also reported the death of a military officer, and announced the arrest of 749 people.
The NGO Encuesta Nacional de Hospitales reports 84 civilians injured in the protests, while the Ministry of Defence reports 23 military personnel injured.
Opposition leader Freddy Superlano was arrested on Tuesday in what the opposition considers a ‘repressive escalation’. His party, Voluntad Popular, denounced ‘torture’ to ‘make him confess to the false plan set up by spokesmen for the regime’.
The armed forces, the government's mainstay, expressed its ‘absolute loyalty and unconditional support’ for Maduro, said Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino, who joined the thesis of a coup against the government.
Mexico's leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on those who question and even denounce fraud in the elections to keep their ‘noses’ out of Venezuela. In Mexico City, hundreds of Venezuelans gathered at the emblematic Angel of Independence with claims of electoral ‘fraud’.
Before breaking off relations with Peru, Caracas had expelled the diplomatic staff of that country, along with those of Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay in the face of what it considered ‘interfering’ actions.
Six of Machado's collaborators have been taking refuge in the Argentine embassy for weeks. Machado has denounced a police siege of the embassy, whose electricity was cut off on Tuesday. Argentina claimed that this was ‘harassment’ against its diplomatic headquarters.
