Thousands of opposition members took to the streets of Venezuela on Tuesday shouting “Freedom!” to claim the victory at the polls of their candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who in turn urged not to repress the people after protests that left at least 11 dead, including two minors, and hundreds arrested.
Chanting “Freedom, freedom!” supporters of Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gathered in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities to contest the results of Sunday’s presidential election, which the pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) says will grant a third term to leftist Maduro.
“We have to stay on the streets, we cannot allow them to steal our votes so blatantly. This has to change,” Carley Patiño, 47, who works as an administrator, told AFP.
Led by Machado, the opposition says it has the evidence to prove its victory, while the international community is pushing for a transparent vote count.
At the rally in Caracas, González Urrutia called for calm among the Armed Forces following the deaths of at least 11 civilians in protests, in which dozens of people were injured.
“Gentlemen of the Armed Forces: there is no reason to repress the people of Venezuela, there is no reason for so much persecution,” said Maduro’s rival in the elections.
The president blamed González Urrutia and Machado for the violence at the protests, and assured that “justice will come.”
“I hold Mr. González Urrutia responsible for everything that is happening in Venezuela, for the criminal violence, the delinquents, the wounded, the dead, the destruction,” Maduro said yesterday at the Miraflores presidential palace.
“We are experiencing an attempt at massive destabilization,” he said.
The White House called the repression of protesters “unacceptable,” while the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and the head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, called for respect for the peaceful protest of opponents.
“We are concerned about the use of firearms in these demonstrations. The fact that eleven people have died in demonstrations in just one day is an alarming figure,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the Penal Forum.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab also reported the death of a soldier and announced the arrest of 749 people.
The National Hospital Survey reported 84 civilians injured in the protests, while the Ministry of Defense reported 23 military personnel injured.
Opposition leader Freddy Superlano was arrested in what the opposition considers an “escalation of repression.”
The Armed Forces, the government’s main supporter, expressed their “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” to Maduro, said Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino, who joined the thesis of a coup against the government.
“Persecution”
Relatives waited outside the National Guard headquarters – a military body with public order powers – where several women, including minors, were being held. “My daughter is 16 years old, she is with a cousin (who) is 25 years old, they went out yesterday at 11 or 12 to walk and they were grabbed (…) they were not protesting,” a 50-year-old woman who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.
