Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called for protests throughout the country Venezuela to defend what his party sees as its legitimate election victory, as President Joe Biden’s top diplomat said the United States supports a transition of power.
The United States said Machado’s alternate candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, defeated President Nicolas Maduro in Sunday’s vote. Secretary of State Edmundo Gonzalez said Antony Blinkenreaffirmed that assessment shortly after the opposition urged its supporters to take to the streets this weekend.
Machado said in an op-ed published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal that he is in hiding and fearing for his life after Maduro asked that she and Gonzalez be imprisoned for decadesIt is unclear whether Machado and Gonzalez will attend the protests, but the call for demonstrations across the country comes as foreign nations are becoming increasingly vocal in supporting their victory over Maduro, who has ruled Venezuela since 2013.
“I could be arrested as I write these words,” Machado wrote. A separate article in the paper’s editorial said the government had already issued its arrest warrants, but the country’s top prosecutor did not respond to a request for confirmation.
Machado states in the article that the repression by the government must cease immediately, so that an urgent agreement can be reached that facilitates the transition to democracy.
Just hours after Machado’s op-ed was published, Maduro addressed the nation on state television warning that two maximum-security state prisons that were being renovated would soon be ready for the thousands of Venezuelans who have protested the election results.
The Tocorón and Tocuyito prisons will be ready in 15 days, and will accommodate more than 1,200 protesters have been arrested since Monday and another 1,000 have not yet been apprehendedhe said. It was the latest repressive measure he has taken against the protesters, after promising on Wednesday that they would serve at least 30 years in prison.
Machado said most of his team is also currently in hiding, and six of his top aides who had taken refuge in the Argentine Embassy in Caracas fear an imminent assault, he said. Brazil took custody of the mission on Thursday morning and Maduro has promised to respect the embassy’s sovereignty, according to a Brazilian official familiar with the matter. Argentine embassy staff had been expelled by Maduro, who also gave diplomats from Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic until Friday to leave.
Amid speculation about their possible arrests, Costa Rica He offered political asylum to Machado, González and all those facing persecution, including his aides at the Argentine embassy.
Machado said on Tuesday, after learning of the offer, that she was grateful, but that her duty was to continue fighting alongside the Venezuelan people.It is not yet clear whether she is willing to accept the proposal. Her press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why does Nicolás Maduro want Machado arrested?
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday that the opposition’s presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, and his backer Maria Corina Machado have to “stay behind bars” for alleged “criminal” actions in recent dayswhen protests were recorded against the official results of Sunday’s elections.
“If you ask me my opinion as a citizen, I tell you that these people have to be behind bars, and there has to be justice in Venezuela,” said the head of state at a press conference.
Likewise, Maduro, who was proclaimed president on Monday by the National Electoral Council (CNE) without all the votes counted, which have not been published either, called González Urrutia a “coward” and Machado a “criminal right-wing fascist.” Machado, for her part, insists on the victory of the former ambassador, as she has in her power more than 80 percent of the votes, which have been made public on an Internet page.
“They should, instead of hiding, appear before the Prosecutor’s Office and face the crime, instead of fleeing like cowards and continuing to call their enemies to insurrection. criminal groups“Maduro added, despite the fact that neither of the two opponents are sheltered anywhere, since this same Tuesday they led a massive activity on a street in Caracas.
The call to jail for both anti-Chavez activists was made on Tuesday by the president of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), Jorge Rodríguez, who accused them of being responsible for a “fascist conspiracy” against the elections, while the considered number two of Chavismo, the deputy Diosdado Cabello, threatened that they are going to “screw them up””.
Numerous opposition groups, organisations and a large part of the international community, who question the official results of the elections, demand the publication of all the minutes, while the anti-Chavez supporters claim to have more than 80% in their possession, which they insist gives the victory to González Urrutia by a wide margin.
The CNE declared Maduro the winner by just over 704,114 votes against González Urrutia, when more than two million votes remained to be counted – 20 percent of the voting records, the count of which is still unknown – could change the final results.
The Carter Center, which participated as an observer in the elections, stated on Tuesday that the process “did not conform” to the international parameters and standards of electoral integrity, and therefore “cannot be considered a democratic election.”
* With information from EFE
