Madrid/Thousands of Venezuelans gathered last Saturday in the center of Puerta del Sol in Madrid, in a day of movement around the world to claim the victory of the opposition Edmundo González in the elections of July 28 in Venezuela and ask him was inaugurated as the country’s president on January 10. Under the name Great World Protest for Freedom in Venezuela, the supporters of González and María Corima Machado, together with opposition leaders from their country such as Antonio Ledezma, the former mayor of Caracas, and also with Spaniards – including leader the conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo–, in the streets two months after the Venezuelan elections.
“Here we have to move from compassionate statements to effective actions,” said Ledezma in statements to the media before starting the event, in which he thanked the support received from national parliaments, such as Spain, and from organizations international such as the UN. or the OAS, but he said: “It is time to implement the sovereign will that has been suppressed by a dictatorship.”
Ledezma, coordinator of the International Political Council of opposition leader María Corina Machado, said that the international community “must be present with strong actions to avoid this bad example that (Nicolás) Maduro represents copied by other public leaders. ”
The rally was attended by Edmundo González, who arrived in Spain on September 8 to request asylum. The politician greeted all attendees but he could not speak because, according to Ledezma, he was suffering from hoarseness, and he was the one responsible for reading a message from him.
On July 28, the people gave a “sovereign mandate for change, for peace, freedom and democracy”
In it he asked on July 28 that the people “give a sovereign mandate for change, for peace, freedom and democracy”, asking for unity and trust “in the power of truth, firmness and perseverance.” Likewise, he reiterated that they have an “unparalleled popular mandate for change” and are “very close” to achieving it. Machado also participated on the Internet, who said in an emotional message: “It is not the end only that Maduro leaves power, that will happen, it is the end of the construction of Venezuela that will arise.” ”
The rally was attended by representatives of all Venezuelan opposition political parties, as well as relatives of political prisoners.
In addition to Madrid, the march was held in dozens of cities in Spain, including Barcelona, where hundreds of people demanded the recognition of González Urrutia as president-elect and demanded action from the International Criminal Court against Maduro. “We ask the president (of the Spanish Government) to recognize Pedro Sánchez Edmundo González, together with the EU and all democratic countries, so that the world joins the Venezuelan cause that wants to end the Maduro dictatorship ,” said the spokesperson for organizing the show, Gerali Rodríguez told EFE.
This protest was also made in about 500 cities around the world, according to María Corina Machado, in her message, in a global call.
In Venezuela, the march was also marked by the departure of the Chavistas, who asked their followers to defend Maduro’s victory in the elections on the same day as the opposition.
First, Machado invited Venezuelans to demonstrate in small groups in different regions of each city or town in Venezuela. The former deputy pointed out that the protests should be carried out under the “swarm” method, so that citizens can “appear and disappear” quickly and thus be arrested, after around 2,400 people ended up behind bars in the context of the post-election crisis, some of them were caught during the demonstrations. This was the first march held by the majority against Chavismo since the standard bearer left the country.
The anti-Chavistas met in the states of Monagas, Falcón, Lara, Yaracuy, Mérida, Bolívar, Barinas, Delta Amacuro and Apure
The anti-Chavistas met in the states of Monagas, Falcón, Lara, Yaracuy, Mérida, Bolívar, Barinas, Delta Amacuro, Apure, where citizens read the results of the voting records they received from a page web in which, according to the opposition, 83.5% of those documents obtained through witnesses and polling station members on election day are published. “We have the record in our hands, we have victory in our hands and we continue to show it,” said the leader of the campaign against the state of Monagas in X.
At the same time, Chavismo moved in several states such as Aragua, Monagas, Amazonas, Sucre, Lara, Apure, Falcón, La Guaira, Delta Amacuro to celebrate the controversial re-election of Maduro, a result that was questioned within and outside the country. Supporters of the government, called by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), attended the event with flags and traditional symbols of the ruling party, including images of the late President Hugo Chávez ( 1999-2013), as well as flags with an image of Maduro.
The president participated in the demonstration in La Guaira, where he ensured that they confirmed the “victory” of the election in these two months. Last Saturday, Maduro requested that he be sworn in as president for the period 2025-2031 next January, as established by the Constitution. “On January 10, President Nicolás Maduro Moros will be sworn in by the people in the streets, by the millions, as the Constitution dictates,” the president said at the show.
Likewise, he dismissed the fact that in January González Urrutia will be sworn in as the next president of Venezuela. “The Constitution is complete and states that the president convened with the corresponding bodies, in this case the Electoral Branch, and confirmed by the expert review of 100% of the minutes, which the Electoral Chamber (of the High Court of Justice) , was sworn in on January 10,” he said.
