Venezuela, Maduro accuses Urrutia of wanting to flee the country

VenezuelaPresident Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election is contested, accused his opponent at the polls Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate claiming victory, of wanting to 'flee' Venezuela. "Where is Edmundo González Urrutia hiding?" shouted Maduro during a large rally in his support in front of the presidential palace in Caracas. "Did he win? What did he win? Maybe a lottery to hide in a cave. He is in a cave. And he is planning his escape from Venezuela. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia takes the money and goes to Miami,' Maduro told the crowd.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified in early August Maduro's victory on 28 July with 52% of the vote, without providing the exact count or the votes from the polling stations, claiming to have been the victim of a computer attack. Meanwhile, the uncovered truck that the Venezuelan opposition used for its marches was confiscated after the demonstration in Caracas against the re-election of Nicolas Maduro. Members of the opposition electoral group published a photo of the vehicle - used for months as part of the election campaign - hitched to a truck in the seizure by the national police. 'The regime stole the truck for demonstrations and mobilisations across the country,' the opposition wrote on X. "They will not be able to stop us from continuing to take to the streets!". The government sanctions companies that work with the opposition with closures and fines, and the truck was a solution found by the opposition to avoid having to rent stages and loudspeakers.

From Perth to Auckland, from Sydney to Melbourne, the photos posted on social media by the Venezuelan opposition have meanwhile borne witness to the voices (Australia was the one that started it) globally raised against the government of Nicolas Maduro, 'for respect for the will of the people expressed in the 28 July vote and for a return to democracy'. 'Today we make history. We take to the streets of Venezuela and the world so that the regime understands that there is no going back. The country will be free', declared leader Maria Corina Machado, the driving force together with presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia of the 'Great Protest for Truth', the demonstration convened in 380 cities, on five continents, including a dozen Italian squares, including Rome, to revive the electoral victory.

This was preceded by the new arrest of a prominent opposition politician, proving that despite international pressure, the grip of repression in the South American country is not loosening. The former MP, Piero Maroun, secretary of the Democratic Action organisation (Ad) was taken away while having dinner with his wife, becoming the third former MP to end up in Chavista jails, together with Williams Davila, also from Ad, who was rushed to hospital after six days in prison, and Freddy Superlano, leader of Voluntad Popular (Leopoldo Lopez's party) subjected to torture in the dungeons of the Elicoide.

To demonstrate its popular legitimacy, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela responded to Machado with the 'Great National March for Peace', hastily organised in a hundred or so Venezuelan cities. A show of strength made all the more necessary after the new shingles for Maduro arrived from the Organisation of American States (OAS), which unanimously approved a draft resolution demanding that the government in Caracas "respect human rights, the sovereign will of the electorate and the impartial verification of the results to guarantee transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the electoral process". A proposal presented by the United States with the support of other countries, including Argentina, Canada, Chile and Ecuador, which was also accepted by Brazil and Colombia after two hours of negotiations. An important political signal, given that Brasilia and Bogotá more than anyone else had sought dialogue with Maduro in recent weeks.