Venezuelan opp vows protesters will not ‘leave the streets’

CARACAS:

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado vowed Saturday that anti-government protesters would remain out in force as she came out of hiding to lead a protest in Caracas against Nicolas Maduro's disputed reelection victory claim.

Machado had called for mass gatherings in more than 300 cities in Venezuela and abroad to intensify pressure on Maduro to concede what she says was an overwhelming opposition win in July 28 presidential polls.

She herself led a "Protest for the Truth" in the Venezuelan capital, after having been mostly in hiding in the face of arrest threats from Maduro's government.

"We won't leave the streets," Machado told hundreds of demonstrators, many of whom were waving the national flag and printed copies of election records from their voting stations as proof of an opposition victory.

"With intelligence, prudence, resilience, boldness... peaceful protest is our right," she said.

Demonstrators loudly cheered Machado's speech. "Liberty! Liberty!" many shouted.

Earlier, Machado had called for the anti-Maduro movement to "remain firm and united" in the face of threats and violence.

"They're trying to scare us, to divide us, to paralyze us, to demoralize us, but they can't because they are absolutely entrenched in their lies (and) violence," she wrote on X.

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of a third six-year term until 2031, giving him 52 percent of votes cast on July 28 but without providing a detailed breakdown of the results.

The opposition says polling-station-level results show its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia took more than two-thirds of the vote.

Gonzalez Urrutia replaced Machado on the ballot after she was ruled out of running by institutions loyal to the regime.

"If we keep quiet, this makes no sense," demonstrator Adriana Calzadilla, a 55-year-old teacher, told AFP in Caracas.

"This is a criminal government that wants to hold on to power. I smell freedom, I have nothing to fear."

Anti-Maduro protests have claimed 25 lives so far, with nearly 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested since election day.

Early Saturday, there was a heavy security buildup in the capital, with two armored vehicles and 40 motorcycle-mounted troops controling access to the low-income Petare neighborhood, a few miles from the opposition's gathering point.

Local media reported similar deployments in other areas.

At one of the first overseas demonstrations to get under way Saturday, more than 100 Venezuelans in Australia rallied in Sydney, waving national flags and balloons.

"This is a strong message to our people in Venezuela. We are with you, and we want the world to listen what we are saying," said protest organizer Rina Rivas.

Gonzalez Urrutia, also in hiding, last appeared in public at a protest on July 30.

Maduro had called for Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia to be arrested. He accuses them of seeking to foment a "coup d'etat."

Maduro's victory claim has been rejected by the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries.

Neighbors Colombia and Brazil on Thursday called for fresh elections in Venezuela, but Machado said this would show "a lack of respect" for the popular will already expressed on July 28.

On Friday, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, traditionally a leftist ally of Maduro, described the regime in Caracas as "very unpleasant" and insisted on the release of a detailed vote breakdown.

In a radio interview, Lula declined to label the Maduro government a dictatorship, but said it had an "authoritarian bias."  afp