“We Do Not Accept Blackmail,” says opposition leader Maria Corina Machado
“We do not accept the blackmail that defending the truth is violence. Violence is outraging the truth,” says opposition leader.
HAVANA TIMES – Venezuelans took to the streets for the second consecutive day on Tuesday to protest against the presidential election results issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner. Meanwhile, the opposition and Maduro’s top officials have accused each other of the violence reported in some of the protests.
The Democratic Unity Platform (PUD), the largest opposition coalition in Venezuela, gathered thousands of Venezuelans in Caracas, where opposition leader María Corina Machado and the coalition’s presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the opposition defines as the real winner of the contest, participated.
This was the first large-scale organized activity after numerous protests were recorded in several regions of the country on July 29, rejecting the results provided by the electoral body, with 80% of the count completed and without showing the tally sheets, while more than two million votes remain uncounted, whose allocation is still unknown.
Meanwhile, Chavismo also gathered its supporters in different regions of the country and Caracas, where EFE confirmed that independent media were not allowed access, to “celebrate in peace” what they consider Maduro’s victory, to whom the CNE awarded 704,114 more votes than Gonzalez Urrutia, a margin much smaller than the number of votes yet to be counted.
Maduro, from the government palace, asked for daily mobilizations to “restore peace, tranquility, and normalcy.”
Detentions and Deaths in Venezuela
Four Venezuelan NGOs reported that at least 11 people died on Monday during protests against the official election results.
The president of the Penal Forum, Alfredo Romero, also reported that as of 7:00 PM local time (11:00 PM GMT), 278 arrests had been recorded since Monday in the context of the demonstrations.
EFE confirmed that detentions continued Tuesday during clashes between protesters and security officials, shortly after the opposition’s rally in Caracas ended.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab reported that at least 749 people have been detained in the past hours following numerous protests.
Saab stated that the arrested protesters are being charged with crimes such as public instigation, obstruction of public roads, incitement to hatred, resistance to authority, and in the most severe cases, terrorism.
He also reported that 48 police officers and military personnel have been injured in the protests, and a member of the Armed Forces died “as a result of shots fired by these protesters” in the northern state
