Cúcuta (Colombia), Jul 28 (EFE).- With the slogan of a “free Venezuela,” citizens of that country established in Cúcuta, the main Colombian city on the common border, went to vote this Sunday to elect the president of the Caribbean nation.
In Cúcuta, the capital of the Colombian department of Norte de Santander, located next to the Venezuelan state of Táchira, there live some 300,000 Venezuelans, but only 1,225 of them are eligible to participate in the presidential elections due to the difficulties they encountered in registering, they have denounced.
Voters arrived in small groups at the Venezuelan consulate in this city this morning to exercise their right to vote, hoping to see “free Venezuela” again, as they have repeatedly stated, and to be able to return to hug their relatives who remained there.
“Today is an important day for Venezuela and wherever we are in the world we will want the best for our country. That is why today I am voting for change,” Mireya Olivares Páez told EFE.
Some of the voters who came to the consulate in Cúcuta wore the burgundy jersey of the Venezuelan national team and hugged each other, with tears in their eyes, in a demonstration of brotherhood and longing for their country.
In Colombia, the country with the largest number of Venezuelan migrants, with almost 2.8 million, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), only 7,012 are accredited to vote.
The cities with the largest number of voters are Bogotá, with 4,367; Cúcuta (1,225), Medellín (497), Barranquilla (387), Riohacha (325) and Cartagena (209).
Many Venezuelans who were unable to register arrived at the consulate in Cúcuta on Sunday hoping to be allowed to vote, but were unable to do so.
“There was no accurate information on how to register my ID at the consulate and I cannot cast my vote. I feel bad; I wish victory and freedom for my country,” said Norvic Oropeza, a Venezuelan resident in Cúcuta, to EFE in tears.
Ten candidates are running in Sunday’s elections, including President Nicolás Maduro and former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, the candidate of the opposition coalition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) and who is leading in voting intentions according to traditional pollsters.
Due to the importance of these elections, Colombian authorities have reinforced controls and surveillance in the border area of Norte de Santander, which on the Venezuelan side has been closed since last Friday.
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2024-07-31 03:35:59
