Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Tuesday denounced the arrest of lawyer Perkins Rocha, legal adviser to the main anti-Chavez coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), which she accused of being the “regime of (President) Nicolas Maduro.”
Through the social network X, the former deputy said that her “friend and companion in the cause” had been “kidnapped,” referring to the jurist, whom she described as “a fair, brave, intelligent and generous man.”
“They want to subdue us, distract us and terrify us. We continue forward, for Perkins, for all the prisoners and persecuted, and for all of Venezuela. We will be free,” he said.
The Vente Venezuela Human Rights Committee (VV) – a party led by Machado – said that “unidentified individuals forcibly took” Rocha, who was also a witness for the opposition bloc before the National Electoral Council (CNE) in the presidential elections on July 28.
The party also demanded, in X, information on his whereabouts, as well as his “immediate release.”
Recently, the lawyer stated that Nicolás Maduro “is refusing to accept what all of Venezuela knows,” referring to the victory that the PUD claims its standard-bearer, Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained in the presidential elections, according to “83.5% of the minutes” that he says he collected from witnesses and table members, documents that the Government describes as “false.”
On Saturday, Machado called on the international community to hold Maduro and his “criminal regime” responsible for “the repression unleashed” in the country, especially after the elections.
According to official figures, more than 2,400 people have been arrested since July 29 – some in demonstrations and others in police operations – while 25 people died in acts of violence that the government attributes to the opposition, while anti-Chavez supporters blame the state security forces, on orders from their superiors.
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