Venezuela’s opposition wants the army and police to stop supporting Maduro

Two opposition leaders in Venezuela have called on the army and police to drop their allegiance to President Nicolás Maduro. “We ask the conscience of the military and the police to side with the people and their families,” wrote Edmundo González and Maria Corina Machado in a joint statement. report on their social media.

After last weekend’s elections in Venezuela, there has been great unrest in the country. According to the official results, President Maduro won the election with 51 to 44 percent of the votes. However, the opposition says its own polls showed that González, Maduro’s rival, had about 70 percent of voters behind him. Maduro has yet to respond to the increasingly loud calls for the polling station to release the results.

After the official results were announced, thousands of people took to the streets in protest in Venezuela. Maduro allowed these demonstrations put down with force. At least eleven people were killed. Maduro said on Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 dissidents, saying they will receive “the maximum punishment for the crimes”.

González and Machado repeat in their appeal to the army and the police that the opposition has won the elections. “Now it is up to all of us to respect the voice of the people.”

The public prosecutor in Venezuela has name to launch a criminal investigation into the message of González and Machado. The investigation is related to “encouraging police and military officers to violate the law.”

At the same time, international pressure on Maduro is growing. The United States likes it confirmed that González won the election. “The official results do not represent the will of the Venezuelan people,” Secretary of State Blinken said in a statement.

Blinken said the National Electoral Council has “no credibility” due to voting irregularities and the failure to report results by a polling station. It puts more weight on the numbers gathered by the opposition through exit polls and observers during the counting of votes.

Heads of state and government of several European countries, including the Netherlands, France and Germany, asked Venezuela last weekend requested the speedy publication of electoral documents that could prove that President Maduro was re-elected on his own.