Nicolas Maduro challenges Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia: “Come for me, coward”

Caracas, Jul 30 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday challenged the opposition presidential candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, to come out from where he is “hiding” and go to Miraflores Palace – the seat of government in Caracas – to meet with him and “show his face.”

“Come for me, I’ll be waiting for you here in Miraflores, Mr. González Urrutia, don’t take too long to arrive, coward, come for me, coward,” said the head of state from the headquarters of the Executive, despite the fact that the opposition leader is not sheltered anywhere, since this very Tuesday he led an activity on a street in Caracas, where he gathered thousands of people who support him.

In front of hundreds of followers, whom he asked to mobilize “every day” to “restore peace, tranquility and normality,” Maduro said: “Show your face, show your face to me, stop attacking the people, Mr. coward (…) where are you hiding, Mr. coward?”

The Chavista leader blames González Urrutia and his main supporter, María Corina Machado, for “terrorist” acts, in reference to protests in Caracas and several regions against the official result of Sunday’s presidential elections, which gave a victory to Maduro, who obtained, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), 51.2% of the votes, compared to 44.2% attributed to the standard-bearer of the majority opposition.

The difference in votes between Maduro and the anti-Chavez candidate is 704,114 votes, according to the electoral body, which upheld the victory of the official candidate when 20% of the votes were still to be counted, that is, more than two million votes, the destination of which is unknown, since the results were not published when 100% of the votes were counted.

The anti-Chavez sector, grouped in the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), describes these demonstrations as “spontaneous and legitimate expressions”, while the Government labels them as “criminal” and “terrorist”, while denouncing a coup d’état “forged again” by “extremist right-wing fascist factors”.

According to four NGOs, at least 11 people died on Monday in the context of these protests, and the organization Foro Penal counts 177 arrests.

The PUD, which claims to have more than 84% of the records, insists that these give victory to the former ambassador, and “challenges” the CNE to publish them.

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