Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado shows vote count sheets during a protest against the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, a month after a disputed presidential election which she says the opposition won in a landslide, Wednesday (Aug. 28, 2024). | Photo credit: AP
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday vowed to keep up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step down in January.
He urged the international community to rise to the occasion and immediately recognise his group’s presidential candidate as the winner of July’s election, and to implement measures to hold government officials accountable for post-poll abuses.
Speaking to journalists online from an undisclosed location in Venezuela, Ms. Machado reaffirmed her commitment to negotiating incentives and guarantees that would allow a peaceful transfer of power.
“We, the Venezuelan people, have done everything,” he said. “We coped with the rules of the dictatorship … and we won, and we proved it. So, if the world or any government is thinking about looking the other way, imagine where sovereign will and popular sovereignty end in the Western world. That would mean that elections are worthless.”
His comments came three days after the country’s justice system, which is loyal to the ruling party, issued an arrest warrant for former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez, who represented the main opposition coalition in the July 28 election.
While the National Electoral Council, packed with ruling party supporters, declared Mr. Maduro the winner, it never released a vote count supporting its claim. However, the opposition coalition claimed that Gonzalez defeated Mr. Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin and presented as evidence vote counts from more than 80% of the electronic voting machines used in the election.
Thousands of people, including minors, took to Venezuela’s streets just hours after the electoral council’s announcement. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, the late leader Hugo Chavez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda material.
Mr. Maduro’s government has responded forcefully to the demonstrations. A Human Rights Watch report on Wednesday blamed state security forces and gangs linked to the ruling party for some of the 24 deaths during the protests.
“Their brutality knows no limits,” Ms. Machado told reporters on Thursday.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday denounced the “unjustified arrest warrant” for Gonzalez, calling it “yet another example of Mr. Maduro’s efforts to maintain power through force.” Mr. Kirby said the United States was considering a range of options to show Mr. Maduro and his allies that “there will be consequences for their actions in Venezuela.”
Under the Biden administration, Venezuela’s government has been granted a range of economic relief from the economic sanctions imposed by the United States to oust Mr. Maduro from power. Some of that relief ended earlier this year, as the government stepped up repressive efforts against the opposition, civil society and others it sees as adversaries.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a staunch Maduro ally, insisted on Thursday that his office had sought the warrant because Gonzalez, 75, had not appeared three times to answer questions in a criminal investigation centered on the online publication of tally sheets obtained by the opposition. Mr. Saab told reporters that the publication was an encroachment on the exclusive rights of the National Electoral Council and claimed the opposition’s vote records were false.
“You shared the website on your (social media) networks,” Mr Saab said, referring to Gonzalez. “If it is false, explain why you shared it.”
Mr. Saab’s claim contradicts those of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center, who observed the election at the invitation of Mr. Maduro’s government and then determined that the results announced by election officials lacked credibility. In a statement criticizing the election, the United Nations experts stopped short of validating the opposition’s claim of victory, but they said the bloc’s online published voting records displayed all the basic security features.
Published – September 07, 2024 12:04 pm IST