Caracas, Jul 18 (EFE).- The “attacks” and “persecution” that the majority opposition in Venezuela claims is being carried out by the government are intensifying following two weeks of electoral campaigning and ten days before the presidential elections on July 28, when a dozen candidates will compete for the next six-year term in power, which has been occupied by Chavez since 1999.
The day on Thursday began with a warning, through a video posted on social media, from the leader of the main opposition coalition – the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) – María Corina Machado, regarding the cutting of “the brake hoses” of one of the two vehicles with which she and her team are traveling the country, in favor of the candidacy of Edmundo González Urrutia.
In the video, Machado also claims that the other truck had “all the oil emptied from its engine,” while showing the bodywork of both vehicles, vandalized with white paint.
WORLD ALERT
This morning, an attack was committed once morest me and my team in Barquisimeto, Lara state. Our cars were vandalized and the brake hoses were cut.
Agents of the regime followed us from Portuguesa and surrounded the residential area where we spent the night.
The… pic.twitter.com/D40gXm9lsT— Maria Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) July 18, 2024
The former deputy described this incident as an “attack” and held President Nicolás Maduro – a candidate for re-election – responsible for any damage to her physical integrity and that of her collaborators.
This, he said, “is happening” 24 hours following his security chief, Milciades Ávila, “was kidnapped” by “regime officials,” who, he explained on Wednesday, “forced their way into the house where he was staying, violating all legal procedures.”
As of Wednesday, according to the PUD, security officials had arrested 72 people since the campaign began on July 4, of whom 24 remain in prison.
Acts of “cowardice”
González Urrutia, who has not been able to participate in the recent events due to a cold, said that the “intimidation” once morest Machado and the arrests are acts of “intolerable cowardice that threaten the development of the process,” and therefore urged the National Electoral Council (CNE) to act “in the face of these events.”
“It is crucial to guarantee peaceful development,” said the former ambassador, who has a voting intention of 59.1%, compared to 24.6% for Maduro, according to a study by the Andrés Bello Catholic University (CEPyG-UCAB) and the Delphos polling firm.
The PUD demanded that the Attorney General’s Office carry out an “exhaustive” investigation into “this very serious event,” referring to the “attack,” a “criminal act” that “warrants not only the repudiation” of the country, but also “national and international demands” for an end to “fear and repression as an electoral tool” by the government.
For his part, candidate Enrique Márquez expressed, in X, his rejection of “the violence of which Machado has been a victim,” “her environment and the different factors that are in the democratic exercise of politics.”
Solidarity vs. “brute force”
In recent hours, Machado told EFE, “the repression” has increased, with a “systematic attack” expressed – he said – through arrests and “threats” to his team.
The actions once morest the vehicles represent, he said, a “red line that, until now, they had not crossed,” so, in his opinion, the government is appealing to “the only thing left”: “brute force,” seeing – he explained – that support for González Urrutia “is growing” and that his victory is “inevitable.”
However, he said that the country has risen up ” once morest a tyrannical system that has all the money and weapons,” since, following these attacks, he has received offers from citizens related to vehicles, accommodation, travel assistance and protection.
“Joy” in the official campaign
Amid dancing and singing, Maduro closed the second week of campaigning with events in Caracas, where he said that the country “deserves peace” and to be “free,” while once more accusing the PUD of having plans for “something serious to happen” and for the “elections to be suspended.”
“There are no bitter people here, there are no bitter women here, here everything is song, joy, because we are the majority,” said the president, who warned that the nation “will decide on the 28th” whether it falls “into the void of a civil war” or remains “on the path of peace.”
He also indicated that he has visited “more than 250 towns, neighborhoods and cities, one by one,” in his journey “from end to end, from north to south, from east to west.”
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2024-07-22 00:54:55