After weeks of tension and uncertainty, citizens heeded the call of the majority opposition led by María Corina Machado, and began to gather at 10:00 am on Francisco de Miranda Avenue, near the Líder Shopping Center, in the Sucre municipality, east of Caracas.
With a wave of tricolor flags, slogans, whistles and banners, shouting “fraud” and with the printed electoral records in their hands, they kept alive the demand for the publication of the results of the electoral elections that confirm the victory of the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
Despite the threats, persecutions, intimidation and imprisonments by the regime, which deployed police and military forces from different security bodies in various popular sectors of the capital, a large number of people packed Caracas’ avenue, one of the busiest and widest, to express their support for González Urrutia’s victory and demand the truth about the electoral process. This demonstrated that the opposition leadership still holds.
However, popular clamor prevailed over repression, demanding with slogans of “freedom!”, “Venezuela won!”, “we are not afraid!” and “give it to them!”, that Edmundo González obtain international recognition as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Chavismo reacted to the democratic call with marches in the capital of Caracas and throughout the national territory, in the same cities in the interior of the South American nation where María Corina Machado and the opposition called for the protest.
Amid threats of arrest against him, Machado reappeared on the streets under the slogan of “we are not afraid”wearing her typical white shirt and riding the usual truck that has transported her since the beginning of the electoral campaign, to speak to the thousands of people who gathered there since the morning at the meeting that did not include the presence of Edmundo González Urrutia.
In the vehicle with the image of González Urrutia, which traveled the entire length of Francisco de Miranda, there were also some leaders such as Delsa Solórzano, Juan Pablo Guanipa and Biagio Pilieri, César Pérez Vivas and Alfredo Ramos, all members of parties that make up the largest anti-Chavez coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD).
“We are not going to leave the streets”
Later, before the crowd, Machado warned that she will continue to apply peaceful pressure to the dictatorship to acknowledge its defeat. “We have the votes, we have the records. We are not going to leave the streets,” stressed the opposition member, who also said that “it is time to collect.”
He also indicated during his speech that a “fifth stage” is underway, which consists of “collecting” González Urrutia’s victory, “enforcing popular sovereignty and the truth expressed on July 28.”
He also explained that charging means ensuring that “every vote is respected, because there is nothing above the voice of the sovereign, and the sovereign spoke in Venezuela.”
He also said that the regime did not expect the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people expressed at the polls on July 28. “They thought we were going to be afraid! They thought that by persecuting our witnesses we were not going to get our records, and in 24 hours we had the records digitalized!”
“Violence suits them. We do not attack other Venezuelans,” he stressed, in front of the thousands of citizens who packed the Caracas avenue to demand the victory of the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
He also referred to the brutal repression of the Chavista regime, which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has condemned as “state terrorism,” and which has left at least 23 people dead by firearms and more than 1,400 detained since July 28. “It is chilling what the regime has done in terms of repression, and the world is watching it,” he added.
Caracas asks to “cash in” for opposition victory
Protester Carmen Gonzalez, 65, pointed out THE AMERICAS DAILY He went out this day to protest against the clamor of the Venezuelan people “which calls on international organizations to make prompt decisions to get out of this crisis and this dictatorship”.
For her part, Clara Mendoza, a 70-year-old social worker, demands that the world listen to Venezuelans, “and know that Edmundo González won and we want to collect that profit so that there is a change.”
“I have been working in public administration for 40 years and I earn 130 bolivars a month. That is why We tell the dictatorship to show the minutes so that Venezuela can have fair salaries and good education and health,” he emphasized with the certificates in his hands.
Meanwhile, Victoria Santiago, a 16-year-old student, demanded that the Venezuelan regime publish the minutes and recognize that Edmundo González is the true president.
“I have hope, because I would not like to emigrate from my country. Most of my family is abroad and they always hold out hope of being able to return to a free and democratic country,” he said.
The call from the democratic forces was received in at least 350 cities around the world, in countries such as Spain, Argentina, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Puerto Rico.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro’s victory with results that, three weeks after the elections, have still not been published, and which have been questioned by numerous countries and organizations, which are calling for transparency on the part of the institution.
Meanwhile, the opposition insists that the victory of its standard-bearer is confirmed by 83.5% of the minutes, which were scanned, totaled and published on a platform that allows the results to be verified by voting table, and claims to have obtained this thanks to the people who were witnesses and members of the table in the electoral process.
