MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Thousands gather in Caracas to support Machado

“Violence is pretending to bury the truth,” Machado insisted

The streets of Caracas were packed Saturday with supporters of disenfranchised opposition leader María Corina Machado, who insisted that “the truth is in the minutes” in her possession which proved that Edmundo González Urrutia had defeated the incumbent Nicolás Maduro in last Sunday's elections.

Regarding Maduro's submission before the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ), Machado underlined that there was “no pseudo-legal maneuver that can cover up the truth.”

Machado staged Saturday's rally despite threats from the government due to which she had been in hiding out of fear for her safety and freedom, according to an op-ed article she published in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The Carter Center, an international observer monitoring the Venezuelan elections, concluded that they could not be labeled as “democratic” given the numerous irregularities detected. In addition, the CNE never released the disaggregated results of each polling table to back up the announcement that Maduro had won.

Machado's move Saturday challenged Maduro's leadership. “I do not accept that we are being blackmailed by those who equate victims with victimizers. We do not have firearms. It is the regime that uses them against the population. We do not promote violence. And going out to protest civically and peacefully is not violence. Violence is pretending to bury the truth,” Machado insisted. “Freedom! Freedom!,” she went on.

“Today is a very important day. After six days of brutal repression, they thought they were going to silence us, frighten us, or paralyze us. The presence of each one of you here represents the best of every Venezuelan. This shows the world the magnitude of the strength and what it means that we are going to go all the way,” Machado also highlighted alongside fellow political leaders Delsa Solórzano, Juan Pablo Guanipa, María Beatriz Martínez, Biagio Pilieri, and Williams Dávila of the opposition Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD).

“July 28 marks a milestone from which the transition to democracy in Venezuela began,” Machado also said. ”Today the fear is elsewhere (...) ours is a civic and peaceful struggle, but it is not weak“, she pointed out.

”We have never been so strong,“ Machado stressed. ”We have never been as strong as today. Never has the regime been so weak. It has lost all legitimacy.“

”We have to keep moving forward to assert the truth. We have the evidence and the world already recognizes it,” Machado later noted on X.

Eleven civilians have been reported dead since the outbreak of spontaneous protests on Monday in rejection of Maduro's re-election announcement. Over 1,200 people have also been arrested as authorities keep claiming the PUD was planning a coup d'état.