Protests erupt in Venezuela after electoral dispute

Caracas. The government and the opposition are holding demonstrations in the Venezuelan capital on Saturday, raising tensions in the South American country following the controversial presidential elections, in which both President Nicolas Maduro and his opponents have declared themselves winners, while international pressure is growing to find a negotiated solution to the crisis.

The Chavista march will begin in the afternoon.

A new player has entered the electoral dispute: the Supreme Court of Justice, which on Friday night asked the electoral body to submit within three days the minutes of the vote counts from the polling stations – which it has not yet published despite the demands of several countries and the opposition – as part of the investigation it began into the elections following a legal action brought by Maduro.

Determined to show its strength on the streets, the government called on its supporters on Saturday to the “mother of all marches” in Caracas to celebrate the re-election for a third term of Maduro, who in recent days has intensified attacks on the opposition and in particular against its leader María Corina Machado and opposition candidate Edmundo González, whom he has held responsible for the protests that broke out at the beginning of the week in Caracas and several cities in the interior that left 11 dead and more than 1,200 arrested, according to non-governmental organizations.

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The protests erupted after the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared the president the winner of the July 28 presidential election, which the opposition did not recognize. In response to those actions, the government has called for daily demonstrations in the capital since last Tuesday to show its strength.

Machado, who remains under guard after denouncing that his life and freedom are at risk, called on the opposition to gather in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in the east of the capital, one of the strongholds of the opposition, to celebrate the election of González, a 74-year-old former diplomat.

The updated results published on Friday by the CNE indicate that, based on the counting of 96.87% of the votes, Maduro had 6.4 million votes and González 5.3 million.

There is great expectation surrounding the opposition event due to the possible public appearance of Machado, who became the main promoter of González’s candidacy after she was disqualified for 15 years from holding public office.

Corina Machado leads protest against election results

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado left hiding on Saturday and marched through an area of ​​eastern Caracas with thousands of people, protesting against the country’s election results, while caravans of supporters on motorcycles drove around in support of the government.

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Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, widely seen by critics as a supporter of the ruling party, on Friday ratified President Nicolas Maduro’s victory in Sunday’s vote, with 51 percent of the vote compared to 46 percent for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.

“Just as it took us a long time to achieve electoral victory, now comes a stage that we live day by day, but we have never been as strong as we are today, never, never,” Machado said during the demonstration.

Supporters cheered her presence on the streets after she announced in a Thursday op-ed to The Wall Street Journal that she was in hiding and feared for her life.

“I’m happy because I’m here with Maria Corina, supporting Venezuela so it can get out of this terrible injustice,” said Yamilet Rondon, a 42-year-old housewife, waving a Venezuelan flag.

The demonstrations spread to other cities such as Valencia, Maracaibo and San Cristóbal.

Earlier, the Organization of American States (OAS) urged that the day of marches be peaceful and that hate speech between the parties be banished, amid a spiral of tensions linked to the contested election results.

“May every Venezuelan man, woman, who speaks out in the street today find only an echo of peace, a peace that reflects the spirit of democratic coexistence,” the OAS said in a statement posted on its social media account X.