Nicolás Maduro should realize he lost the presidential election, María Corina Machado says in the Guardian, despite growing worldwide skepticism about his claim to have won.
The head of the opposition, who is fighting to topple Nicolás Maduro's autocratic government, has advised the dictator to recognize that his downfall is unavoidable. The call was made as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to refute Maduro's adamantly denied claim to have been elected to a third term in office.
The government-run electoral authority declared the current president of Venezuela the election winner on Sunday morning. Despite strong worldwide skepticism over the validity of his claimed victory, Maduro referred to it as "irreversible."
The charismatic conservative María Corina Machado, who is leading Maduro's opponent in Sunday's election, urged the president to accept the end of his 11-year reign. During that time, Venezuela plunged into a catastrophic economic and humanitarian crisis that has resulted in millions of people being forced to flee their country.
She told Maduro, who was legally elected following the 2013 passing of his mentor, President Hugo Chávez, that "he should understand that he was defeated." Since then, Maduro has led Venezuela in a more authoritarian and anti-democratic manner.
Maduro's prior assertion that his reelection was "irreversible" was rejected by Machado. She declared, "I would say his departure is irreversible."
Just a few minutes prior, Machado and Edmundo González, a former diplomat who stood for president in her stead after being barred, declared their campaign now possessed concrete proof that González had won handily on Sunday.
With over 5.1 million votes to González's 4.4 million, Maduro asserts that he defeated the opposition. However, Machado—dubbed the "iron lady" of Venezuela by some—assisted that her candidate had won with almost 6.2 million votes as opposed to Maduro's 2.7 million.
"Edmundo González is the president-elect," she announced to hundreds of jubilant supporters crammed into the street outside their campaign headquarters perched on a slope beneath the majestic El Ávila mountain in Caracas.
Following a day of protests that saw multiple violent altercations with police authorities and pro-Maduro paramilitaries, thousands of protesters were still present in the streets of Caracas and other cities as Machado spoke to the crowd.
Surprisingly, a large number of those demonstrators were from the vast hillside slums that have long been seen as strongholds of the Chavismo movement, which has ruled Venezuela for the previous 25 years.
Rafael Cantillo trembled with fury as he marched through Caracas with hundreds of other citizens of one such hamlet. "Maduro was the election thief... Everyone knows it's a scam, "exclaimed the forty-five-year-old, who is from the sizable working-class community of Petare.
Katiuska Camargo, a neighboring community leader from Petare, asserted that Maduro had lost decisively in these kinds of villages because the people there were sick of the injustices his government had let occur. "This man lost the race. As the gathering grew, she exclaimed, "He did not!"
"Petare is here," the demonstrators shouted as they marched westward toward the presidential mansion and the city center. And President Edmundo is the one!\
Social media was ablaze with tales throughout the day of anti-government protests that started in impoverished neighborhoods all throughout the city, fights with law enforcement, and pro-Maduro biker gangs known as colectivos that were captured on camera firing shots into the air.
"It's not just fraud, it's a coup d'état," remarked 37-year-old cook Jesús Herrera as he joined a march. The people who had come to the streets, according to Herrera, were "moved by [Maduro's] lie." When surveys showed his opponent with a sizable lead, he blasted the president's claim to have won reelection as "such an obvious lie." "Everyone holds the same beliefs."
At least three Hugo Chávez sculptures were destroyed during the day due to protests that also took place in other parts of Venezuela. Many compared such sights to the stunning photos from the Iraq War that showed Saddam Hussein's statue being toppled in downtown Baghdad. Protesters in the Portuguese state were captured on camera damaging a propaganda billboard with a picture of Maduro and the words "More changes and transformation."
Additionally, there were allegations on Monday night that demonstrators had overrun the Maiquetía international airport, which is located on the coast north of Caracas. There was a delay on at least one incoming flight.
Allies of Maduro, who attribute Venezuela's economic problems to US sanctions, scheduled their own demonstrations for Tuesday afternoon in an effort to demonstrate public support that is likely to exacerbate tensions in the city of Caracas.
Maduro asserted in a broadcast speech that groups of "delinquents" had broken into the Coro region's electoral authority offices. According to the president, far-right radicals who are fascist and criminals are waging "a violent counter-revolution" through these kinds of actions.
Declaring that such actions were intended to start "an escalation of violence" that would eventually lead to the opposition's "golden dream-seizing power," Maduro said, "the law must be respected."
Maduro asserted, "The gringos are behind this plan."
0 Comments