Maria Corina Machado assures that “huge civilian force” will bring change to Venezuela

The post-election conflict seemed stable due to the inertia of stagnation experienced in Venezuela, but with the proximity of the presidential inauguration on January 10, in just over a month, tensions are rising again. In hiding, leader María Corina Machado has sent an audio in which she assures that “a completely new phase is about to begin” after the opposition challenged Chavismo to power with the publication of the March 28 voting records. Victory for candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. On the other hand, the National Electoral Council has declared the victory of Nicolas Maduro, without showing evidence. “I urge that we be prepared to demand what is ours with maximum force. With the enormous civic power with which we decided on change, as sovereign people, we are now going to make it concrete,” says the opposition leader.

Machado urged Venezuelans to be “ready” to “do what is appropriate when the right time comes”, and to pay attention to “what is happening, the signs that are about to appear” and the messages that it is Will continue. Send. Machado’s message comes after Gonzalez Urrutia, who was forced into exile last September after judicial persecution, assured that he would return to the country to take up the presidency and if he So he is trying to be “morally prepared”.

The opposition has moved forward at the diplomatic level. González Urrutia has visited several European countries, meeting some heads of state and speaking at parliamentary forums. He has said that he will visit Latin American countries in the days leading up to January 10, although he has not specified when or which countries he will visit specifically. The official records that the opposition collected on the night of the vote, thanks to a well-prepared civil machinery, have been presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Senate of Colombia, the Congress of Chile and Argentina. This week he is in Brazil, which will be delivered to senior officials of the government there. Mass protests have also been announced in Venezuela and abroad on this 1 December. Details have not been disclosed, but neither Machado nor other leaders have participated in the latest mobilization due to threats of arrest.

The coming weeks are full of uncertainty. The government of Nicolas Maduro has released some people detained for protesting, but it has also stepped up persecution due to complaints of alleged plots attributed to opposition sectors, which, according to these allegations, has always been Plan to boycott the inauguration. On 10 December. January, the date prescribed in the Constitution for declaring the President. Chavismo’s number two, Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello, reported a few days ago that 100 people – mostly businessmen – had been detained over an alleged plot to “destabilize the country.”

This Tuesday the National Assembly will hold a second debate on a law liberator simon bolivarCounter-narrative to the Bolivar Law of the United States Congress – a package of sanction measures against companies or governments doing business with Chavismo. This local law is supposed to protect Venezuela from an “imperialist blockade”. Cabello has said the law is severe and includes prison, asset confiscation and political disqualifications. Prosecutor Tarek William Saab has already opened a case of “treason to the country” against Machado, but it was Cabello who was the most aggressive in her speech: “The terrorist (Machado) is disqualified for life, for mental illness of this nature. A person with problems can never direct anything.” “For terrorist Maria Corina and the terrorists who accompanied her, for those who are creating violence and calling for sanctions, invasions and blockades, impunity is over,” he said.