Thousands demand “freedom” for Venezuela in cities around the world

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets yesterday Saturday (08/17/2024) in various cities in America and other cities around the world in “defense of the truth” and urged the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to take a clear position and to pressure the National Electoral Council, which declared Nicolás Maduro re-elected president, to release the disaggregated results of the July 28 elections, which according to the majority opposition were won by Edmundo González Urrutia.

From Canada to Argentina via Tokyo and Sydney, The demonstrations took place in a context of great political tensionwhere the opposition denounced “electoral fraud” in elections in which the majority of the diaspora could not participate due to bureaucratic obstacles, another of the major complaints of thousands of Venezuelans against the Maduro government.

The worldwide marches were called by the largest opposition alliance in Venezuela, the Democratic Unity Platform (PUD), led by María Corina Machado, to demand the truth of the victory in the presidential elections.

Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are urged to “put pressure”

In Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, Venezuelans and many local citizens who marched in solidarity criticised the position of the governments of these three countries, which are close to Maduro and have adopted varied and changing positions regarding the crisis in Venezuela, while trying to make arrangements to provide a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose party was one of the first to recognize Maduro’s victory, has hardened his speech in recent days in response to the official result of the presidential elections.

Both Lula and Colombian President Gustavo Petro have put forward several proposals. The Brazilian proposed two solutions – the formation of a coalition government that includes members of Chavismo and the opposition or the holding of new elections – and the Colombian suggested a “national front” as a “transitory” step towards a “definitive solution” to the crisis.

These alternatives have already been rejected by Chavismo and the opposition, with both sides defending their victory in the presidential elections.

Criticism against AMLO and Lula

For Lorena Lara, a 44-year-old Venezuelan who has lived in Brazil for 17 years, the proposal “makes no sense” because the elections were already held “under the government’s rules” and the government has not yet “proven” the results published by the National Electoral Council that gave Maduro the victory.

While the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated that Mexico’s position is to “wait” for what the electoral court decides and criticized the governments and international organizations that have recognized González Urrutia’s victory.

“The position of the Mexican president is, let’s say, a Pontius Pilate-type position, it’s like wanting to avoid giving an opinion that could later create a commitment, we don’t know what his reasons are,” Venezuelan dentist and university professor Juan Carlos Vielma told EFE.

The living hope

Carrying flags, dressed in the colors of the national flag and with printed ballots that, according to them, prove that González Urrutia was the winner of the electionsMany Venezuelans maintain “a living hope” that there will be freedom in their country, to which they long to return soon.

In Colombia, Ana Ángela Jugo, who left Venezuela in 2019 after “a series of blackouts” that lasted several days without electricity and jeopardized the job with which she supported her family, said that her desire is to return, like many of the eight million Venezuelans who have left the country in recent years, motivated above all by the economic crisis, but also by opposition to the Venezuelan government.

Shouting “Enough is enough!”, Venezuelans in Chile demanded that Maduro show all the election records and step down from power.

One of the organizers of the Toronto march, Rebeca Sarfatti, told EFE that those gathered represented “the democratic will of the Venezuelans of the world who passionately” They want the end of the Maduro regime.

“I want them to recognize us internationally and not leave us alone. They don’t turn their backs on us. Those elections in Venezuela were manipulated. Edmundo won,” Génesis Pernia, one of the Venezuelans present at the massive march and a resident of Panama for almost a decade, told EFE.

In other major world capitals, thousands of Venezuelans also demonstrated in a show of strength and unity against the “fraud” that they say the Maduro government committed in the presidential elections.

In Spain, thousands of Venezuelans demonstrated in several citieswhere an estimated 280,000 Venezuelans live. There were also gatherings at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, which was packed.

“We have to defend the votes. Enough is enough. Enough is enough. They cannot steal our country from us,” David Bautista told AFP, who gathered with hundreds of his compatriots in the central Plaza de Lourdes in Bogotá, the capital of the country that is home to the largest number of Venezuelan migrants.

Several demonstrations against the situation in Venezuela also took place in Paris, Sydney and Tokyo.

The surprise of the day was in Caracas, the epicenter of the PUD’s global meetingwith the reappearance of María Corina Machado before thousands of her followers, after spending several days “in shelter” for her safety.

On the eve of the marches, twenty-two countries and a group of European Union nations called for the “immediate publication of all the original minutes” of the elections and the “impartial and independent” verification of the results of those elections, according to a declaration signed in Santo Domingo on Friday.

Continue reading:
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• Electoral body is accused of trying to falsify voting records in Venezuela: can this be done?