Venezuelan opposition to fight ‘to the end’

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro participates in a march in Caracas in support of his victory in the July 28 elections. – Reuters

Venezuelan opposition supporters gather in Lima and Medillin (left). – Reuters

Venezuelan opposition supporters in Medellin participate in a global protest. – Reuters

A woman shows a copy of a voting record during a protest in Buenos Aires called by the Venezuelan opposition. – AFP

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado (centre) holds a national flag atop a truck during a protest in Caracas called by the opposition for election ‘victory’ to be recognised. – AFP

People take part in a protest in Mexico City. – AFP

Venezuela’s opposition, claiming victory in presidential elections they say were stolen by strongman Nicolas Maduro, gathered in the thousands in Caracas and elsewhere on Saturday, vowing to fight “to the end”.
People rallied in several cities in Venezuela and as far afield as Spain, Belgium and Australia in response to a call by opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to join a “Protest for the Truth”.
Machado herself came out of hiding to lead a rally in the capital, seeking to intensify pressure on Maduro to concede what she and others say was an overwhelming win for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in July 28 polls.
“We won’t leave the streets,” Machado told thousands of demonstrators, many of whom waved the national flag and copies of election records from their voting stations as proof of an opposition victory.
“Peaceful protest is our right,” she said as demonstrators chanted “Liberty! Liberty!” and clamoured to get as near as possible to the wildly popular politician.
Authorities later confiscated the open-top truck that Machado uses as a stage at rallies, including on Saturday, according to an X post from her Comando Con Venezuela alliance.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of a third six-year term until 2031, giving him 52% of votes cast but without providing a detailed breakdown of the results.
The opposition says polling station-level results show Gonzalez Urrutia took more than two-thirds of the vote.
He had replaced Machado on the ballot after she was barred from running by institutions loyal to the regime.
“This is a criminal government that wants to hold on to power. I smell freedom, I have nothing to fear,” demonstrator Adriana Calzadilla, a 55-year-old teacher, told AFP in Caracas, where National Guard officers and police were out in force.
Another, 42-year-old economist Iliana Alvarean, conceded that she did “feel fear”.
“One does not stop feeling it, because of the repression,” she said. “But we want him (Maduro) out. We are here to the end.”
Jesus Aguilar, a 21-year-old theology student, said he turned out to support the opposition in hope of a better future: “We know that with this government there are no possibilities for growth. I’ve even seen myself trying to leave the country.”
In cities across the country, Venezuelans were in the streets. In Maracaibo, Venezuela’s once oil-rich city in the northwest, hundreds had gathered by 9am (1300 GMT).
“We have already been through the worst, we don’t have any more fear,” Noraima Rodriguez, 52, told Reuters. “My daughter died because there were no medical supplies in the university hospital. I have nothing to lose, but I want a future for my grandchildren.”
In the cities of Valencia, San Cristobal and Barquisimeto, hundreds demonstrated, many waving Venezuelan flags, protest signs or copies of voting tallies.
In Maracay, about 110km (70 miles) west of Caracas, about a hundred protesters were dispersed with tear gas.
No incidents were reported from the rallies, which took place under heavy security.
On Saturday Maduro accused Gonzalez Urrutia, who last appeared in public at a protest on July 30, of trying to flee the country.
“He’s hiding in a cave. And he’s preparing his escape from Venezuela. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is taking the money and going to Miami,” Maduro told supporters at a rally outside the Miraflores presidential palace.
He has called for Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia to be arrested, accusing them of seeking to foment a “coup d’etat”.
Gonzalez Urrutia was defiant in a post on X earlier in the day: “We have the votes, the records, the support of the international community and Venezuelans determined to fight. It is time for an orderly transition.”
Anti-Maduro protests have claimed 25 lives so far, with nearly 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested since election day.
At one of the first overseas demonstrations to get underway on Saturday, more than 100 Venezuelans in Australia rallied in Sydney.
Thousands more protested across Spain, host to about 280,000 of the nearly eight million Venezuelans to have fled their country as the economy collapsed on the watch of Maduro, in office since 2013.
There were also rallies in Colombia, Mexico and Argentina where 34-year-old Andreina Escalante told AFP “we have faith that we will get out of the dictatorship”.
Holding her two-year-old daughter, she said her dream is to return to Venezuela which she left more than five years ago.
In downtown Mexico City, nearly 1,000 people gathered at the central Plaza de la Revolucion.
“This is the moment for a free Venezuela,” said Jesus Mata, 30, a street vendor who arrived in Mexico two years ago.
Motivated by economic and political crisis, he was among tens of thousands of Venezuelans to cross the treacherous jungle between Colombia and Panama known as the Darien Gap, notorious for robberies, kidnappings, rapes and other dangers.
“I hope for an end to 25 years of darkness, that there is freedom so that the almost 8mn Venezuelans who are outside the country can go back home,” he added.
Maduro’s victory claim has been rejected by the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries.
The international community has offered a raft of suggestions for overcoming the nearly three-week-old election crisis – including a new vote – but most have been rejected outright by both the ruling party and opposition.
However, thousands of his supporters gathered in Caracas and other cities on Saturday.
“The Venezuelan people have suffered too many blockades, too many attacks and this new attack we are going to beat,” 46-year-old community leader Aurimar Nieves told AFP, referring to sanctions imposed by the US.
The CNE says it has been unable to release the vote breakdown due to a “cyber terrorist attack” on its systems, though the Carter Centre observer mission said there was no evidence for such a claim.
The opposition says it has access to 80% of paper ballots cast, which show that Gonzalez Urrutia won handily.
Maduro’s previous re-election in 2018 was rejected by the United States, European Union and several dozen other countries.