Anika Begay
By Deisy Buitrago and Mariela Nava
CARACAS/MARACAIBO (Reuters) – Venezuela’s political opposition and its supporters rallied in several cities across the country on Saturday to demand recognition of what they say is their candidate’s landslide victory in presidential elections nearly three weeks ago.
The country’s electoral authority, seen by the opposition as a wing of the ruling party, said President Nicolas Maduro had won his third term in the July 28 election with just under 52 percent of the vote.
But the opposition, led by former lawmaker Maria Corina Machado, posted online what it said were 83 percent of the voting machine tallies, giving candidate Edmundo Gonzalez a hearty 67 percent of support.
The disputed vote has plunged the economically beleaguered nation into a political crisis, and a government crackdown on protests has led to at least 2,400 arrests. Clashes related to the protests have also led to at least 23 deaths.
The international community has put forward a series of suggestions to overcome the electoral crisis that has been ongoing for nearly three weeks, including a new vote, but most of them have been rejected outright by both the ruling party and the opposition.
In the capital Caracas, thousands of people gathered in the eastern part of the city, along its main artery.
Standing on a truck in the center of the crowd, Machado called for an independent, international review of the election and urged his supporters to stay in the streets.
“There is nothing above the voice of the people and the people have spoken,” he said.
Jesus Aguilar, a 21-year-old theology student, said he showed up to support the opposition in hopes of a better future: “We know that with this government there is no possibility of growth. I even saw myself trying to leave the country.”
In cities across the country, Venezuelans were on the streets. In Maracaibo, Venezuela’s once oil-rich city in the northwest, hundreds of people had gathered by 9 a.m. (1300 GMT).
“We have already been through the worst, we are no longer afraid,” Noraima Rodriguez, 52, told Reuters. “My daughter died because there were no medical supplies in the university hospital. I have nothing to lose, but I want a future for my grandchildren.”
In the cities of Valencia, San Cristobal and Barquisimeto, hundreds of people demonstrated, many of them waving Venezuelan flags, protest signs or copies of election ballots. In Maracay, about 110 km (70 miles) west of Caracas, about a hundred protesters were dispersed with tear gas.
From Bogota to Madrid, the Venezuelan diaspora showed up en masse. In downtown Mexico City, nearly 1,000 people gathered in the central Plaza de la Revolucion.
“This is the time for a free Venezuela,” said Jesus Mata, 30, a street vendor who arrived in Mexico two years ago.
Driven by the economic and political crisis, he was among tens of thousands of Venezuelans who crossed the dangerous jungle between Colombia and Panama, known as the Darien Gap, notorious for robberies, kidnappings, rapes and other dangers.
“I hope that 25 years of darkness will end and that there will be freedom so that the nearly 8 million Venezuelans who are outside the country can return home,” he added.
According to researchers at the Institute of Higher Administrative Studies in Caracas, Maduro has presided over an economic collapse, with a loss of more than 73 percent of Venezuela’s gross domestic product since 2013.
At Miraflores Palace, after a march in support of the government, Maduro promised 8% growth this year and lashed out at international critics and the opposition.
“We have won the right to create whatever future we want in Venezuela, however we want, and no one can stick their nose into Venezuela,” he told a crowd waving Venezuelan flags. “I don’t go around giving advice to anyone in the world about what to do with this or that country… the door will be slammed on anyone who sticks their nose into Venezuela.”
The opposition is still pushing for its victory to be recognized, but its options are narrowing as international attention shifts elsewhere, opposition sources and analysts told Reuters this week.
Many Western countries have called for the full publication of the results, while Russia, China and others have congratulated Maduro on his victory.
Washington, which in April tightened oil sanctions against the OPEC member over what it said was Maduro’s failure to meet an agreement on election conditions, and other Western countries are showing little sign of taking swift, tough action over what many of them have condemned as voter fraud.
Latin American leaders will discuss the crisis this weekend, when many of them will be in the Dominican Republic to attend the inauguration of the country’s new president, Panama’s president said.
