The arrest and subsequent release of the anti-Chavista leader, María Corina Machadoduring a demonstration in Caracas (Venezuela) this Thursday was the high point of constant, but intermittent tension in Venezuela in recent months following the elections of July 28.
While Nicolas Maduro President-elect was recognized following the publication of the results by the National Electoral Council (CNE) -controlled by the ruling party- which established 52% of the votes for the Chavistathe opposition did the same with Edmundo Gonzálezwho would have obtained almost the 70% of the votesaccording to 80% of the records obtained.
The video of Corina Machado after the inauguration
The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado assured this Friday, after the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro as president, that this Thursday’s protests ratified her “deep confidence” that the country’s “freedom” is close.
Initially, he was going to intervene live around 7:00 p.m. (Spanish time), but he finally released a video recorded after 8:30 p.m. after problems with the connection were detected. “Yesterday we defeated fear, they lost.”
“When we left the Chacao concentration, they tried to intercept us with long weapons. We tried to advance and we heard shots. From behind they grabbed me and put me on another motorcycle. That’s how they are, they attack a woman from behind,” he says.
He talks about its physical consequences and the reactions of the rest of the countries: “I am fine, with severe pain from the bruises. But yesterday they saw the deep contradictions of the regime. The news in all parts of the world made them see the mistake they had made.” to commit”.
“Edmundo will come to Venezuela to be sworn in as president at the right time, when the conditions are appropriate. Maduro consolidates the coup d’état, it is time to do everything necessary to restore freedom,” he concludes.
Both Maduro and González assure that they will take the oath at the inauguration
As a result of this, tension and chaos increased in Venezuela with interspersed launches of accusations between the Government and the opposition. The first ones, accusing the seconds of “coup plotters” and the seconds denouncing the “electoral fraud” in the elections.
This week we are experiencing the most extreme point of this situation because, according to the article 231 of the 1999 Constitution“the chosen candidate will take office as President of the Republic January 10 of the first year of his constitutional periodby oath before the National Assembly”, an event that both Nicolás Maduro and Edmundo González have assured that they will attend.
The Venezuelan authorities held a meeting on January 4 to prepare the acts of Maduro’s inauguration and assured that They were waiting for Edmundo González with some handcuffsready to arrest him as soon as he set foot in Venezuela.
Edmundo González confirms that he will travel “very soon” to Venezuela to take office as president
The Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González confirmed this Friday that “very soon” he will travel to Venezuela to take office as president after Nicolás Maduro has been sworn in in the capital, Caracas.
“I am very close to Venezuela. I am ready for safe entry and at the right moment I will assert the votes that represent the recovery of our democracy,” González stressed in a video posted on social networks.
In this sense, he stressed that President Nicolás Maduro “has violated the Constitution and the sovereign will of Venezuelans expressed on July 28.” “He carries out a coup d’état. He crowns himself a dictator,” he declared.
Call to the military
González himself – who has exiled in Spain for several months after fleeing Venezuela– In recent days he has been on a tour of several countries in search of support for his cause, a tour that has taken him to Argentina, United States, Panama and Dominican Republic. After the tour, it was when he announced that he would return to Venezuela to take office accompanied by several former Hispanic American presidents (former presidents for whom the ruling government announced that they would indicate on ‘Wanted’ posters so that they would be detained).
Meanwhile, González Urrutia published a message on his social networks on Sunday in which asked the Venezuelan military to act to “put an end to a leadership that has distorted the principles of the Armed Forces.”
According to CNNwhich has contacted the Government of Venezuela to find out its opinion on these statements, the ruling party assures that there are “destabilizing plans in progress” and that remains on “alert”.
Machado, “violently intercepted” by the regime
Meanwhile, the opposition denounces a political persecution against all dissidentsamong them, the one who is the key figure, the anti-Chavista leader, Maria Corina Machado. In recent days, Machado has called on people to take to the streets to protest against the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro and to claim the victory of Edmundo González in the elections.
This Thursday, she herself participated in Caracas (Venezuela) in a protest in which was “violently intercepted”as confirmed by her Vente Venezuela (VV) party, which reported that members of the regime shot at the motorcycles that were transporting her.
Hours later, she was released and she herself reported that the Venezuelan Government had forced her to record some videos as a condition of his release.
For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, accused the opposition of trying to orchestrate a case of “false positive” with the arrest of the dissident leader to “cover” her limited ability to convene: “They immediately let it spread through the networks in which they lie that she was kidnapped (…). I guarantee you that if the decision were to arrest her, she would already be detained.”
