Photo: Semana Magazine
On Saturday, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in several cities around the world to express their rejection of what they consider to be fraud in the recent presidential elections in Venezuela.
The protests, organized mainly by the Venezuelan opposition, took place in places such as Madrid, Rome, Paris, Lisbon, and numerous cities in Colombia, including Medellin, where hundreds of people gathered in the Parque de las Luces.
In every corner of the world we have our children, grandchildren, relatives and friends.
We are here working to bring everyone back and build a great country.
I love you daughter and our reunion is getting closer every day. Long live free Venezuela! pic.twitter.com/MUitBOc606
— Edmundo Gonzalez (@EdmundoGU) August 17, 2024
The trigger for these protests was the announcement by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which declared Nicolás Maduro the winner of the election. However, the opposition, led by María Corina Machado, maintains that the real winner was Edmundo González Urrutia, the candidate of the main opposition coalition. According to the opposition, the government manipulated the results to ensure Maduro’s continued power.
In Colombia, the country that hosts the largest number of Venezuelan migrants, the squares were filled with people with banners and slogans protesting against what they consider to be an electoral process full of irregularities. The protesters, who mostly hope to one day return to their country under democratic conditions, demanded justice and transparent elections.
Maria Corina Machado, one of the most prominent figures of the Venezuelan opposition, reappeared in public during a rally in Caracas. In her speech, Machado stated that if “false records” are presented, these would be irrefutable proof of fraud committed during the elections. The opposition leader also criticized the delay of the CNE in publishing the official documents of the elections and rejected Maduro’s proposal to leave the validation of the results in the hands of the Supreme Court.
Protests were also held in cities such as Madrid, Rome, Paris and Lisbon, where Venezuelan residents demanded that their country’s government respect the popular will and allow free and fair elections to be held. Opposition leaders have urged the international community not to recognize the official results and to put pressure on the Venezuelan government to restore democracy.
In Medellin, the protest was particularly significant, as hundreds of Venezuelans gathered to support their country’s opposition and demand an investigation into what they consider electoral theft. Protesters in the Antioquian capital expressed solidarity with those fighting for change in Venezuela and reiterated their hope that the international community will intervene to ensure electoral transparency.
2024-08-17 23:24:39
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