Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado joined her supporters protesting in the streets of Caracas against disputed national election results, as protesters marched across the country.
Thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of Venezuela’s capital on Saturday, waving the national flag and singing the national anthem in support of the opposition leader, who they believe won the presidential elections in a landslide.
“Just as it took us a long time to achieve electoral victory, now comes a stage that we take day by day, but we have never been as strong as today, never,” Machado told supporters in Caracas.
Venezuela’s electoral authority, criticized by critics for favoring the ruling party, proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro the winner of last Sunday’s vote, saying on Monday that he obtained 51 percent, compared with 46 percent for the opposition candidate. Edmundo Gonzalez. The authority reaffirmed a similar margin on Friday.
The published election result sparked widespread allegations of fraud and protests.
On Saturday, supporters shouted and sang when Machado arrived at the rally in Caracas. Ecstatic, they crowded around her as she climbed onto a raised platform of a truck to address the crowd.
“I’m happy because I’m here with Maria Corina, supporting Venezuela to escape this terrible injustice,” Yamilet Rondon, 42, who was waving a Venezuelan flag, told Reuters.
In addition to Caracas, demonstrations took place in cities such as Valencia, Maracaibo and San Cristobal.
“I arrived at this march with some fear, afraid of the repression we saw, but it is our fight,” said early childhood education teacher Susana Martinez, 42, at a demonstration in support of the opposition in Valencia.
Meanwhile, Maduro called on his supporters to participate in his own “mother of all marches” elsewhere in Caracas.
“Today, we are here responding to our president’s call… to defend democracy,” Alfredo Valera, president of the Venezuelan trade union Fontur, who participated in a pro-government caravan in Caracas, told state television.
Maduro’s government cracked down on opposition protests and labeled them part of a US-backed coup attempt.
Security forces arrested hundreds of opposition supporters who took to the streets in the days following the disputed vote.
So far, at least 20 people have been killed in post-election protests, according to rights group Human Rights Watch.
Previously, the Organization of American States called for calm.
“Today, we ask that there be no more political prisoners, no more tortured people, no more missing people, no more murdered people,” said the OAS, which this week classified the election results as unreliable.
Nations such as the US and Argentina have already recognized Gonzalez as the winner of the elections, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken citing “overwhelming evidence” on Thursday.
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay also concluded on Friday that Gonzalez received the most votes.
Meanwhile, countries including Russia, China and Cuba congratulated Maduro.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
