Venezuelan opposition chief says she’s in hiding and fears for her life



CNN
 — 

Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado says she’s in hiding, fears for her life, and may show President Nicolas Maduro didn’t win Sunday’s contentious presidential election.

“I’m penning this from hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom,” Machado wrote in an opinion editorial revealed Thursday by The Wall Avenue Journal. “I could possibly be captured as I write these phrases.”

A supply from her marketing campaign confirmed to CNN on Thursday that Machado is presently “sheltered.”

Venezuela’s Nationwide Meeting President Jorge Rodriguez, who’s a member of Maduro’s internal circle, referred to as for the arrest of Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez on Tuesday. Although the nation’s Public Ministry later clarified that no arrest warrant had been issued for both opposition determine.

Protests broke out throughout Venezuela after the nation’s electoral physique, which is stacked with regime allies, introduced Maduro because the winner with 51% of the votes.

The election was seen as essentially the most consequential ballot in years, with Venezuela’s stalling democracy and hopes of recovering its shattered financial system on the road. Many younger opposition supporters mentioned they would depart the nation if Maduro was re-elected, pointing to the devastating collapse of Venezuela’s financial system and violent repression below his rule.

An energized opposition motion – which overcame their divisions to type a coalition and coalesce round a single candidate – loved robust polling figures previous to the vote. It had been seen because the ruling institution’s hardest problem in 25 years.

Although Maduro had promised free and honest elections, the method was marred with allegations of foul play – with opposition figures arrested, their key chief Machado banned from operating, opposition witnesses allegedly denied entry to the centralized vote depend, and abroad Venezuelans largely unable to forged ballots.

The Carter Middle, one of many few impartial establishments allowed to observe the vote, mentioned Tuesday that “Venezuela’s electoral course of didn’t meet worldwide requirements of electoral integrity at any of its levels and violated quite a few provisions of its personal nationwide legal guidelines.”

Venezuela’s opposition and a number of Latin American leaders have refused to acknowledge Maduro’s victory. America is amongst quite a few nations which have referred to as on Venezuelan electoral officers to publish detailed outcomes from Sunday’s presidential election.

Demonstrators confront riot police during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Puerto La Cruz, Anzoategui state, Venezuela on July 29, 2024.

Machado says she will show that Maduro didn’t win. “He misplaced in a landslide to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%,” she wrote in the WSJ.

“I do know this to be true as a result of I can show it,” she claimed. “I’ve receipts obtained instantly from greater than 80% of the nation’s polling stations,” she wrote, claiming to have identified Maduro’s authorities “was going to cheat.”

On Tuesday, Machado posted on X a hyperlink to what she says are the outcomes from Sunday’s election. CNN has not independently confirmed the election information posted by Machado.

“Now we have identified for years what methods the regime makes use of, and we’re properly conscious that the Nationwide Electoral Council (CNE) is completely below its management. It was unthinkable that Mr. Maduro would concede defeat,” she wrote.

CNN has reached out to Maduro’s authorities for remark. The CNE has but to problem last vote tallies.

“The reality is that Mr. Maduro didn’t win in a single considered one of Venezuela’s 24 states,” Machado wrote, including that this was confirmed by a number of impartial exit polls, fast counts and by “each single voting receipt that we noticed coming in, in actual time.”

The opposition chief mentioned “most” of her workforce had been presently in hiding and a few, together with these within the Argentine Embassy concern an “imminent raid.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on July 31, 2024.

Machado ended her article by saying it’s “now it’s as much as the worldwide group to determine whether or not to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate authorities.”

“The repression should cease instantly, in order that an pressing settlement can happen to facilitate the transition to democracy. I name on those that reject authoritarianism and assist democracy to affix the Venezuelan individuals in our noble trigger,” she mentioned.

Lethal protests in Venezuela have seen greater than 1,000 individuals detained, in keeping with Venezuelan authorities.

In line with Human Rights Watch, there are no less than 20 “credible experiences” of deaths associated to the protests that broke out after the elections outcomes had been introduced by the CNE. Native NGO Foro Penal has confirmed 11 deaths linked to the protests.

Maduro pledged to launch all voting information in a non-public dialog Monday with Brazilian international coverage envoy Celso Amorim, in keeping with a supply who was educated about the dialog.

However on Wednesday, the strongman filed an attraction earlier than the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Courtroom of Justice to hold out an skilled appraisal and certify the outcomes of Sunday’s presidential election.

He additionally warned that he wouldn’t hesitate to name on the inhabitants for a “new revolution” if pressured by what he referred to as “North American imperialism and fascist criminals.”

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