MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro speaks of “bloodshed” if he is not reelected

Maduro assured that his victory was the only result that would guarantee “peace” in the country

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro foresaw a “bloodbath” in his country if he fails to be reelected on July 28. According to the most recent surveys, he would be trailing opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia by more than 10 percentage points.

“Venezuela's destiny in the 21st century depends on our victory on July 28. If you do not want Venezuela to fall into a bloodbath, into a fratricidal civil war, product of the fascists, let us guarantee the greatest success, the greatest victory in the electoral history of our people,” Maduro told a group of followers west of Caracas.

“The more resounding the victory, the more guarantees of peace we will have. The more resounding the votes, the more guarantees for the future we are going to guarantee to these girls, to these children,” he added.

Maduro is one of the many candidates challenging frontrunner González Urrutia who reached that position after the disenfranchising of main opposition leader María Corina Machado.

The Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) summoned all 10 presidential candidates on June 20 to sign an agreement whereby they would be accepting the elections' outcome but González Urrutia and Enrique Márquez refused to participate, claiming that such a provision was already included in the Constitution and the laws.

According to a leader of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) consulted by the Spanish newspaper El País, Maduro's camp holds data indicating that González Urrutia is 14 percentage points ahead. However, Maduro and Chavista leaders Diosdado Cabello and Jorge Rodríguez were trusted to turn things around in the final sprint. “Our campaign is touching the people, Edmundo's is no longer, it reached its ceiling. We are making progress and the gap is narrowing,” El País quoted its source as saying.

According to the Center for Political and Government Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (CEPyG-UCAB) and pollsters Delphos, González Urrutia would win with 59.1% of the vote intention while Maduro only has 25%.

In this scenario, Machado denounced an attack against her and her team in Barquisimeto just the day after her chief bodyguard Milcíades Ávila was arrested, allegedly for gender violence. Machado said vehicles of her motorcade had been vandalized with paint and blows while the brake hose of one of the vans had been cut, thus endangering the safety of the people riding it.

“Early this morning an attack was committed against me and my team in Barquisimeto, Lara state. Our cars were vandalized and the brake hose was cut,” Machado said in a video posted on social media. “Agents of the regime followed us from Portuguesa and surrounded the urbanization where we spent the night,” she added. “This is happening here, today, 10 days before the July 28 presidential election, a few hours after our security chief, Milcíaades Ávila, was kidnapped,” she went on.

Machado, who has stopped staying in public establishments to avoid consequences to their owners as on previous occasions with temporary closures or economic sanctions, has long insisted that “Maduro's campaign” was “violence.”