Residents try to block a street to protest the official results the day after the presidential election as National Guards work to remove them in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Military personnel help assist an elderly voter during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) A National Guard officer addresses voters lining up at the Andres Bello School as opposition poll watchers argue they are not being allowed to enter the voting center during the presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024.
(AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez) Residents face National Guards as they block a street to protest the official results the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) A soldier guards the entrance of an open voting center during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado holds a national flag while waving to supporters as she arrives for a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug.
3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) National guards ride on a truck in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024. The presidential election is set for July 28.
(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) National Guards work to disperse protesters the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Military personnel wait for their turn to vote in the presidential elections at Fort Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) President Nicolas Maduro speaks to supporters during a government rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug.
3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) A voter exits a polling station guarded by military personnel during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez) A soldier carries chairs as election workers prepare polling stations in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024.
The presidential election is set for July 28. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) Residents try to block a street to protest the official results the day after the presidential election as National Guards work to remove them in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s opposition leaders are calling on the country’s armed forces to abandon their support of President Nicolás Maduro and stop repressing demonstrators who have come out in force to dispute the leader’s claim he prevailed in last Sunday’s election.
The armed forces are traditionally the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela and have been key to Maduro’s grip on power ever since he took over the so-called Bolivarian revolution in 2013 from his mentor, the late Hugo Chávez. So far, they’ve shown no signs of ditching Maduro even in the face of credible evidence presented by the opposition that it trounced the self-proclaimed socialist at the polls by a more than 2-to-1 margin. In a message posted Monday on social media, Edmundo González — who the U.
S. and a half dozen countries have recognized as the victor — and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on rank and file members of the security forces to rethink their loyalty. “We appeal to the conscience of the military and police to put themselves on the side of the people and their families,” the two wrote in a long message.
“We won this election without any doubt. It was an electoral avalanche,” the two continued. “Now it’s up to all of us to respect the voice of the people.
” Authorities have declared Maduro the victor in last Sunday’s election but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. The opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide showing it won. Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents and at a rally in Caracas he pledged to detain more people and send them to prison.
The post-electoral uprising has also claimed at least 11 deaths, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based human rights group. González and Machado in their missive called on Venezuelans with family members serving in the security forces to urge their loved ones not to attack protesters and obey illegal orders. It said it would offer “guarantees” to soldiers who follow the constitution even while promising there would be no impunity for those behind abuses and following illegal orders.
Both González, a former diplomat, and Machado — who was barred by the government from running — have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro and his cadres have threatened to lock them both up. As Venezuelans fight Maduro on the streets, pressure is also building internationally for the Venezuelan government to publish the full breakdown of the electoral results.
But so far, Maduro has instead asked the country’s supreme court — which like all institutions in Venezuela is packed with loyalists — to review any claims of irregularities. “Respect for popular sovereignty is what moves us to defend the transparency of the (election) results,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Monday in a press conference alongside fellow leftist President Gabriel Boric of Chile. Boric, who cast doubt on Maduro’s victory claim in an unexpectedly strong statement within hours of Venezuela’s July 28 election, told reporters that he and Lula discussed the situation in Venezuela on Monday, without elaborating.
The leaders did not take questions and their carefully worded statements signaled how leftist leaders in the region are gingerly trying to show respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty while voicing doubts about the official results. A few of Maduro’s staunch allies — including Russia, China and Cuba — have applauded his victory. On Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held a telephone call with Maduro and reiterated his congratulations and “condemned any foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs,” Pezeshkian’s office said.
— AP Writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on X (Opens in new window) Most Popular Waterspout in Kill Devil Hills damages Avalon Pier, tosses people and beach gear Waterspout in Kill Devil Hills damages Avalon Pier, tosses people and beach gear Olympics TV schedule for Sunday, Aug. 4 Olympics TV schedule for Sunday, Aug.
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