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Nicolás Maduro meets with “leaders of the independent opposition”

This Tuesday afternoon, President Nicolás Maduro held a private and televised event with “leaders of the independent opposition” at the Miraflores Palace. However, neither Edmundo González nor Benjamín Rousseau, his main rivals in the presidential race, were present.

The meeting, in which the guests drank “coffee for the peace of Venezuela”, had the participation of the mayors of six municipalities in the country, who supported the official candidate and President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.

The mayors present were Adrián Azuaje, from Obispos Municipality in Barinas State; Eduardo Negrete, from Samuel Darío Maldonado Municipality in Táchira State; Luis Pinto, from El Socorro Municipality in Guárico State; Jesús Méndez, from Píritu Municipality in Anzoátegui State; Mayor Sulme Ávila, from Juan Germán Rosio Municipality in Guárico State and Juan Carlos Zamora, from Tinco Municipality in Cojedes State.

“I’ve been watching the networks and listening to the ideas you’re expressing as leaders trained in the opposition,” the president said. “Public declarations in favor of peace, coexistence, the search for paths of consensus. I find it very good that all these things can be reflected facing the sun, what is important here is not a person, what is important is the common destiny. There will always be differences.”

At the event, which was also attended by First Lady Cilia Flores and National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, the mayors thanked the invitation and expressed their support for President Nicolás Maduro. One of the guests was Carlos Prósperi, a former candidate in the opposition primaries of the National Action Party, who gave his support to Nicolás Maduro for re-election.

Maduro, on the other hand, made sure to admit his defeat when he spoke about the elections scheduled for July 28. “We, of the last 30 elections at the national level, have won 28 – with the popular vote – and we won it easily. When we have lost the governorship or the mayor’s office, we are not screaming fraud, nor screaming ‘nothing’, nor crying and we will ask the people to do it,” said the president.