The Venezuelan opposition remained mobilized after the presidential elections and this Saturday return to the street to demand that the victory of their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, be recognized, according to the results of more than 83% of the minutes collected by their witnesses. Critics of President Nicolas Maduro have moderated the street protests in response to the violent response security forces that, during the protests that followed the elections, left more than 2,000 detainees and 25 dead. Thousands of Venezuelans came out to protest to reject Maduro's proclamation as the winner without the National Electoral Council (CNE) having presented table-by-table results that validate this result. This Saturday, opposition leaders insisted that they would accompany the indignation of their voters to exert pressure that they consider essential for the recognition of the result.
This Saturday's mobilization will allow us to measure whether Venezuelans still hope that the political change demanded by the majority in the polls preceding the elections can be achieved. The rally will take place on Francisco de Miranda Avenue, one of the largest in the city, near by Petarethe most populated district in Latin America. The opposition asked citizens to print the results report of their polling station, downloadable from the website where they managed to upload the documents with which they are trying to demonstrate that the CNE allowed Maduro to steal the elections. “Let the world see, minutes in hand, that we do not let ourselves be robbed,” is the slogan of this Saturday.
The opposition has taken advantage of this appeal to Venezuelans abroad. Meetings are planned in more than 350 cities that have been the destination of more than 7.5 million Venezuelans who have been forced to leave their country in recent years due to the deep economic and humanitarian crisis that their country is going through. Most of them are opponents. To organize the marches, this week the leader Maria Corina Machado had an intense day of Instagram live streams and interviews with influencers Venezuelans around the world must use their digital platforms to amplify their call abroad, where they seek to mobilize more support to pressure Maduro to agree to enter into negotiations for a peaceful transition. In all states of Venezuela, people have also been called to concentrate. The mobilization that it will achieve will also be a measure of the impact that the policy of persecution and repression deployed in recent weeks has had, in which several episodes have been reported in which the police check the phones of people in the street in search of videos of protests or content that they might consider contrary to the Government. Many cities in the country, including the capital, have not yet recovered from the torpor of election day and the days of fury that followed. There is a kind of undeclared curfew that leads businesses to close earlier and people to avoid taking to the streets. Citizens say they are afraid. Machado is expected to be present at the rally, as he was at the last one, which took place on the main avenue of Las Mercedes. For the past two weeks, he has indicated that he has taken shelter, like Edmundo González Urrutia, who has not made public appearances with his constituents since July 30.
It's been almost twenty days since Venezuela will enter this new conflictin which the government of Nicolas Maduro struggles to legitimize itself in the face of suspicions of fraud that have led to a large part of the international community be cautious about recognizing his re-election for a third term. The opposition continues to fight to defend the victory that González Urrutia claims to hold according to official documents collected by his electoral witnesses on the night of the vote and to initiate a transfer of power.
Chavismo will also move and will do so on its usual route from the end of Libertador Avenue to Miraflores Palace, where Maduro met daily with his supporters the week after the election. But beyond the street, Maduro led the conflict results to the Supreme Court, which controls, like the entire institutional apparatus. Progress has been made in this area, despite the opposition's rejection, which insists that the electoral authority publish the results table by table and show the official records and ballots it has. This omission is what has given rise to the greatest suspicions about the alleged victory of the Chavista leader on July 28, as highlighted by reports from the Carter Center and the UN Group of Experts, as well as by a large part of the international community.
This Friday, the state channel VTV broadcast images of a group of experts – unidentified – opening the boxes submitted by the CNE and 33 of the 38 political parties containing the minutes and documents from the day of the vote. Based on this assessment, the highest court will issue a decision on the matter in the coming days. A decision that countries like Brazil and Mexico, which are negotiating a solution to the Venezuelan conflict, are waiting for.
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