{"id":8780,"date":"2024-08-29T12:35:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T16:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8780"},"modified":"2024-08-29T12:35:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T16:35:14","slug":"maduro-opponents-take-to-streets-to-revive-protests-disputing-venezuelan-election-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8780","title":{"rendered":"Maduro Opponents Take to Streets to Revive Protests Disputing Venezuelan Election Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro took to the streets Wednesday in an attempt to revive protests against him as he tightens his grip on power following last month\u2019s disputed election.<\/p>\n

The demonstration in the capital, Caracas, comes exactly a month after the fraught July 28 vote in which Maduro was declared the winner despite strong evidence that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a><\/span> won by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, which drew international condemnation that the vote lacked transparency.<\/p>\n

In weeks of on-again, off-again demonstrations, the opposition\u2019s rallying cry has been constant but so far ineffective. Opponents have demanded that officials publish results from each polling station that they say would expose Maduro\u2019s attempts to steal the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoting records kill sentence,\u201d is how the opposition billed the latest protest, referring to the thousands of tally sheets<\/a><\/span> it collected and posted online that contradict a recent sentence written by the loyalist Supreme Court certifying Maduro\u2019s purported victory.<\/p>\n

Opposition supporters protest the reelection of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro one month after the disputed vote, which opposition leaders claim they won by a landslide, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo\/Cristian Hernandez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Maria Corina Machado, center, leads a protest against the reelection of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro one month after the disputed presidential vote which she claims the opposition won by a landslide, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wednesday\u2019s protest was smaller than previous demonstrations. Tiny groups of Venezuelans also gathered in other Latin America capitals.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who along with Gonz\u00e1lez went into hiding following the election, re-emerged to attend Wednesday\u2019s rally, waving a Venezuelan flag and hugging small children from the back of a truck as supporters shouted \u201cFreedom!\u201d<\/p>\n

Banned from running against Maduro, the conservative politician crisscrossed the nation for weeks to help elect Gonz\u00e1lez, a previously unknown former diplomat.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging the steep challenge of forcing Maduro from power, Machado said the movement she leads will be strategic about calling for additional demonstrations. But she said the international pressure on Maduro is unlikely to cease any time soon and pointed out that not a single Western democracy has recognized what she called Maduro\u2019s \u201cfraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who say the passage of time favors Maduro are wrong,\u201d Machado said to throngs of supporters who filled an avenue in Caracas. \u201cEvery day he\u2019s more isolated, more toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone, Maduro\u2019s supporters also planned to hold rallies Wednesday, vowing to \u201cdefend\u201d Maduro\u2019s victory against what they claim is an attempt to sow unrest throughout the South American country.<\/p>\n

Opposition supporters protest the reelection of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro one month after the disputed vote, which opposition leaders claim they won by a landslide, at a shopping mall in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo\/Cristian Hernandez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amid the ongoing crisis, Maduro has leaned heavily on security forces to preserve his power. On Tuesday, he appointed a hard-line ruling party boss<\/a><\/span> as interior minister, with oversight of police forces. Diosdado Cabello has vowed to show no mercy against government opponents.<\/p>\n

Cabello\u2019s appointment stoked fears that a crackdown that has already led to more than 2,000 arrests \u2014 of journalists, politicians and students \u2014 is likely to intensify.<\/p>\n

The arrests featured prominently at a special meeting Wednesday of the Organization of American States in Washington to discuss a report on human rights violations by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Opposition supporters protest the reelection of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro one month after the disputed vote, which opposition leaders claim they won by a landslide, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo\/Cristian Hernandez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe commission condemns unequivocally practices of institutional violence in the context of the electoral process in Venezuela,\u201d Roberta Clarke, a lawyer from Barbados and member of the commission, said at the meeting. \u201cDemocracy and the rule of law must be restored.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission called on Venezuelan authorities to cease all actions that \u201cgenerate terror\u201d in the population \u2014 including arbitrary detentions and the use of violence by non-state actors loyal to Maduro \u2014 and respect the popular will of Venezuelans for democratic change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Venezuela crisis has reached a new nadir,\u201d Ambassador Frank Mora, the U.S. representative to the OAS, said at the meeting. \u201cThe situation in Venezuela demands our urgent attention and our collective action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos and balloons representing people detained by Venezuelan security forces after Venezuela\u2019s presidential election hang at Bolivar square in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, during a protest against the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro one month after the disputed vote which the opposition says it won by a landslide. (AP Photo\/Fernando Vergara)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

– Joshua Goodman and Jorge Rueda, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n

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Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro took to the streets Wednesday in an attempt to revive protests against him as he tightens his grip on power following last month\u2019s disputed election. The demonstration in the capital, Caracas, comes exactly a month after the fraught July 28 vote in which Maduro was declared the winner despite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/8916b00\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6100x4067+0+0\/resize\/1440x960!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Faf%2F8d%2F8173a78f1fab85ca2f9da3f1e7b9%2Fe4339370fcb14aa3b36929fface6c8fa","fifu_image_alt":"Maduro Opponents Take to Streets to Revive Protests Disputing Venezuelan Election Results","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8783,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8780\/revisions\/8783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}