CARACASL: Venezuela’s opposition leader emerged from hiding on Saturday to declare: “We have never been so strong” as President Nicolás Maduro criticized what he called attempts to “usurp the presidency” after disputed elections last week.
Thousands of people gathered peacefully across Venezuela, including the capital Caracas, where Maria Corina Machado thrilled supporters with a surprise appearance in a truck carrying a banner reading “Venezuela Won!”
Machado, who spent most of the week in hiding after Maduro threatened her with arrest following deadly post-election protests, backed Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia’s candidacy after she was barred from running.
Supporters say he won 67 percent of the July 28 vote and several Latin American countries and the United States recognized him as president-elect.
Others called on Venezuela to release detailed results of the vote, including EU states France, Germany, Italy and Spain, which said on Saturday they were “strongly concerned” about the results.
Brazil, Colombia and Mexico – which maintain good relations with Maduro’s government – called for an “impartial verification” of the result.
“We have never been as strong as today,” Machado told the crowd, adding, “the regime has never been weaker.”
“We will not leave the streets,” she vowed surrounded by security. Gonzalez Urrutia was not seen in public on Saturday.
Supporters shouted “Freedom!” as Machado’s truck drove by.
Adrian Pacheco, a 26-year-old businessman, told AFP: “When I see her, she gives me hope, despite the threats. She is a light for Venezuela.”
Venezuela’s CNE election agency, loyal to Maduro, declared him the winner on Friday with 52 percent of the vote to Gonzalez Urrutia’s 43 percent, a result that defied pre-election polls.
His call for the “mother of all marches” was responded to by thousands of Maduro supporters Saturday afternoon who gathered in downtown Caracas to march to the presidential palace in the name of “national peace.”
“We will not accept” the opposition’s claims of victory and moves to “usurp the presidency of the republic again,” Maduro told the rally.
After Venezuela’s last election in 2018, Maduro was declared the winner amid widespread allegations of fraud. The United States and dozens of other countries eventually recognized the then speaker of the parliament, Juan Guaidó, as the acting president of Venezuela.
But Guaido has failed to remove Maduro from office as many had hoped, and the once hugely popular young politician has largely disappeared from public life.
“We are at the beginning of a new era, an era of consolidating the revolution, an era of prosperity,” said 69-year-old professor Ali Garcia.
Maduro, 61, slammed international criticism, calling allegations of electoral fraud a “trap” orchestrated by Washington to justify a “coup”.
The opposition launched a website with copies of 84 percent of the ballots cast, indicating an easy victory for Gonzalez Urrutia. The government says they are fake.
Maduro has led the oil-rich, cash-poor country since 2013, presiding over an 80 percent drop in GDP that has driven more than seven million of Venezuela’s 30 million once-wealthy citizens to emigrate.
Experts blame mismanagement and US sanctions for the collapse.
Maduro has maintained power thanks to loyalty from the military leadership, electoral bodies, courts and other state institutions, as well as the support of Russia, China and Cuba.
Maduro also said on Saturday that “military and police patrols” would continue across the country to “protect the people”.
The NGO Foro Penal reported 11 dead in protests on Monday and Tuesday as angry Venezuelans took to the streets, and Machado said at least 20 people had been killed.
Officials said one soldier also died, more than 1,200 were arrested.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia on Friday and expressed “his concern for their safety and well-being” and congratulated Gonzalez Urrutia “for getting the most votes,” the State Department said.
Venezuelan émigrés in cities across the Americas also rallied Saturday against Maduro and his claims of victory.
“We don’t want violence, we just want him to go, we just want peace,” Maudie Lopez, 43, a craft worker, told AFP in the Colombian capital, Bogota, where hundreds of people joined in chants and prayers.
“I want to go back to my country. Colombia hosts about three million of the seven million Venezuelans who have fled since Maduro came to power.
