Several hundred Venezuelans gathered in Paris on Saturday to protest against the “fraud” they accuse the government of Nicolás Maduro of in the presidential elections of 28 October and to claim the victory of the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.
In parallel to the Paris demonstration, which took place in the Place de la Bastille under persistent rain, other demonstrations were also organised in a dozen other cities in France, including Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Bayonne, La Rochelle and Le Havre.
Protesters in Paris chanted various slogans in Spanish, including “No to fraud!”, “No to repression!”, “Edmundo, President” and “Maduro must go!”.
Many of them wore T-shirts and caps in the colours of the Venezuelan flag, which some also waved.
One of the signs carried by a participant read: “We want one to go so that everyone can return.”
Several of the participants read out the results of the minutes that the opposition to Maduro claims to have compiled, and which according to their counts show a clear victory for González Urrutia.
Katty Kleber, one of the organizers, wanted to symbolize in a brief performance during which she was splashed with red paint the dead, the wounded and those arrested by the “repression” of the Venezuelan government to try to silence the demonstrations in the interior of the country demanding the publication of all electoral records.
Kleber, who explained to EFE that he had had to leave Venezuela during the time of Hugo Chávez, like several others present, complained to EFE about the difficulties that Venezuelan residents in France had in being able to vote in the presidential elections.
According to the figures, of the nearly 2,000 nationals who appear in the consular registers, only 680 were able to participate.
Among the obstacles to exercising the right to vote, they pointed out the obligation to present a passport instead of an identity card, the impossibility of registering for those who are not in a regular situation in France or who do not have a stable status (such as students).
They also reported that some people had been deleted in an untimely or unjustified manner, for example because someone had been reported dead.EFE
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