Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Monday that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez will be “sworn in” as Venezuela’s new president on January 10, 2025, when socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro’s current term is set to end.
Machado said, Interview According to information provided to Spain’s EFE news agency, González is due to be sworn in on the same day, despite President Maduro claiming to be the “winner” of a fake July 28 presidential election.
“Edmundo González will be the new head of state, the new commander in chief of the armed forces, but it depends on the actions of all of us, all Venezuelans at home and abroad,” Machado said. “I have confidence in the Venezuelan people, and that’s why I’m confident that on January 10th we will have a new president.”
President Maduro is currently in a very corrupt “election” was held in May 2018. The socialist dictator is similarly seeking to retain power following the July 28 general election, in which Maduro was challenged only by hand-picked “rivals” and González.
Machado, a former lawmaker and leader of Venezuela’s only mainstream center-right party, Vente Venezuela, has garnered overwhelming support to become the opposition’s leading candidate. victory During the 2023 opposition primary election process, the Maduro regime had a regime-controlled court deny her candidacy. Supported He will be banned from running for any public office as punishment for his support of human rights sanctions against the regime.
The former congressman told EFE that Gonzalez had won a “landslide victory” in a fake election on July 28. Several countries and international organizations have questioned the legitimacy of the election, as the Maduro government has not released any official data. Machado said the Carter Center, owned by Maduro, Invited To observe the fake election event — stated He said the election “cannot be called democratic.”
Venezuela’s National Electoral Center (CNE) has declared President Maduro the “winner” of the fraudulent election but has refused to release any documents to support its claim that he won around 51% of the vote in the July 28 vote.
Machado and other members of Venezuela’s opposition have repeatedly claimed they have the results of a nationwide vote tally from July 28 that proves Edmundo Gonzalez won a landslide victory over Maduro. The opposition has published a digital copy of the tally online. resemble In 2013, Venezuela’s ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) shocked the Maduro regime when it released vote tallies that gave him victory in the presidential election that followed the death of the late socialist dictator Hugo Chavez that year.
Machado is under protection due to threats against her and recent actions by the Maduro regime. opening Joseph Bach, head of the criminal investigation into her and Gonzalez, criticized the CNE for violating its own timetable by not announcing the election results despite multiple calls for transparency from the international community.
Machado told EFE that “the whole world knows” that Maduro lost the July 28 election and that he was working with regime-controlled institutions and military leaders to commit “the greatest fraud in history” by claiming victory for himself. Pledged “Absolute loyalty” to the socialist dictator.
In this handout photo released by the Miraflores Presidential Press Office, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gives a V for victory gesture after arriving at Fort Tiuna military base in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. (Marcelo Garcia/Miraflores Presidential Press Office via The Associated Press)
“[Maduro] “There is absolutely no justification for today’s actions and therefore it is time for the international community to draw a very clear red line related to respect for national sovereignty,” Machado said.
In some countries, united states of america and Argentinarecognized Gonzalez as the winner of the presidential election. The European Union stated The CNE’s results would not be recognised “in the absence of supporting evidence”, and the opposition’s vote tally showed Gonzalez “appearing to have won the presidential election by a landslide”.
Machado said he hoped foreign governments would “make it clear to President Maduro that the use of repressive force against innocent civilians is unacceptable.”
Police target demonstrators protesting official election results, Monday, July 29, 2024, the day after voting, after electoral officials certified the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela. (Fernando Vergara/Associated Press)
The former congressman also said he expects criticism of the Maduro government to continue to grow in the coming days and stressed the importance of “applying all necessary pressure so that President Maduro understands that accepting the negotiated terms is the best option.”
After the CNE announced Maduro’s “victory,” peaceful protests erupted across the country, and the regime responded with widespread repression. Dissidentsthe growing Internet censorship,and”Re-education“ A camp for detained dissidents.
Maduro’s government has deployed the National Guard, police and other security forces to quell the protests. ColectivosArmed socialist gangs serving Maduro. Brutal crackdown at least Non-governmental organizations estimate that 24 people have been killed, but President Maduro has claimed that more than 2,000 Venezuelans have been detained by his regime’s security forces.
Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Expressed The Turkish president expressed “deep concern” about the current situation in Venezuela, noting that more than 2,400 people have been arbitrarily detained by the Maduro regime during protests. He called for the immediate release of those detained, including “human rights defenders, young people, people with disabilities, people associated with or perceived to be connected to the opposition, and people accredited by the opposition as election observers at polling stations.”
“It is particularly worrying that so many people have been detained, charged and prosecuted under incitement to hatred and anti-terrorism laws. Criminal law must never be used to unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and freedom of association,” Turk said.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
