Venezuela's opposition gathers in Caracas and promises to fight “to the end”

Venezuela's opposition claimed victory in a presidential election they say was stolen by strongman Nicolás Maduro. Thousands gathered in Caracas and elsewhere on Saturday, vowing to fight “to the end.”

In several cities in Venezuela and even in Spain, Belgium and Australia, people gathered in response to opposition leader María Corina Machado's call to take part in a “protest for the truth”.

Machado herself came out of hiding and led a rally in the capital, which she and others say was intended to increase pressure on Maduro to concede the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia in the July 28 election.

“We will not leave the streets,” Machado told thousands of protesters, many of whom waved the national flag and copies of electoral documents from their polling stations to prove the opposition's victory.

“Peaceful protest is our right,” she said as demonstrators chanted “Freedom! Freedom!” and tried to get as close as possible to the hugely popular politician.

Authorities later confiscated the open truck that Machado uses as a stage at rallies, including on Saturday, according to an X-post from her Comando Con Venezuela coalition.

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

According to the opposition, the results at polling station level suggested that Gonzalez Urrutia received more than two-thirds of the vote.

He had replaced Machado in the election after institutions loyal to the regime had denied her candidacy.

“This is a criminal government that wants to hold on to power. I smell freedom, I have nothing to fear,” 55-year-old demonstrator Adriana Calzadilla told AFP news agency in Caracas, where the National Guard and police were deployed in large numbers.

Another, 42-year-old economist Iliana Alvarean, admitted that she “felt fear.”

“You don't stop feeling it because of the repression. But we want him[Maduro]comes out. We're here until the end.”

No incidents were reported at the demonstrations, which took place under tight security measures.

“Hidden in a cave”

Maduro on Saturday accused González Urrutia, who last appeared in public at a protest rally on July 30, of trying to flee the country.

“He is hiding in a cave. And he is preparing his escape from Venezuela. Edmundo González Urrutia is taking the money and going to Miami,” Maduro told his supporters at a rally in front of the presidential palace in Miraflores.

He called for the arrest of Machado and González Urrutia and accused them of trying to stage a “coup”.

González Urrutia issued a defiant statement 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.”

Since election day, 25 people have been killed in the anti-Maduro protests, almost 200 have been injured and over 2,400 people have been arrested.

In one of the first demonstrations abroad, which began on Saturday, more than 100 Venezuelans in Australia gathered in Sydney.

Thousands more demonstrated across Spain, which is home to around 280,000 of the nearly eight million Venezuelans who fled the country when the economy collapsed under Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.

There were also rallies in Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, where 34-year-old Andreina Escalante told AFP: “We believe that we will leave the dictatorship behind us.”

Holding her two-year-old daughter, she says her dream is to return to Venezuela, which she left over five years ago.

“Pure lies”

The United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries have rejected Maduro's claim of victory.

Nevertheless, thousands of his supporters gathered in Caracas and other cities on Saturday.

“The Venezuelan people have suffered too many blockades and too many attacks, and we will repel this new attack,” 46-year-old community leader Aurimar Nieves told AFP, referring to the US sanctions.

The CNE said it was unable to publish the vote count due to a “cyber-terrorist attack” on its systems. However, the Carter Center's observer mission said there was no evidence to support such a claim.

The opposition claims to have access to 80 percent of the ballots cast, which show a clear victory for González Urrutia.

Maduro's previous re-election in 2018 was rejected by the United States, the European Union and several dozen other countries.

– TIME/AFP