People hang out on a street of Catia neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A soldier carries chairs as election workers prepare polling stations in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024. The presidential election is set for July 28. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
National Guards work to disperse protesters the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents and at a rally in Caracas he pledged to detain more people and send them to prison. The post-electoral uprising has also claimed at least 11 lives, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based human rights group.
The Venezuela-based human rights organization Provea, in a report issued Monday analyzing the post-election climate, concluded that the government’s response in silencing people’s discontent has been “through the disproportionate use of force” that has resulted in the deaths of protesters and “the open coordinated action between security forces and groups of armed civilians in favor of Nicolás Maduro to calm the protests” which has led to an increase in arbitrary arrests.
The organization reported that based on figures announced by the Attorney General’s Office last week, the number of arrests against real or perceived government opponents is equivalent to about 42% “of the total number of arbitrary arrests recorded by Provea between April and August 2017, the most important cycle of protests in the country since 1989.”
González and Machado in their missive called on Venezuelans with family members serving in the security forces to urge their loved ones not to attack protesters and not obey illegal orders. It said it would offer “guarantees” to soldiers who follow the constitution even while promising there would be no impunity for those behind abuses and following illegal orders.
Both González, a former diplomat, and Machado — who was barred by the government from running — have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro and his cadres have threatened to lock them both up.
Residents face National Guards as they block a street to protest the official results the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
A National Guard officer addresses voters lining up at the Andres Bello School as opposition poll watchers argue they are not being allowed to enter the voting center during the presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
As Venezuelans fight Maduro on the streets, pressure is also building internationally for the Venezuelan government to publish the full breakdown of the electoral results.
A soldier guards the entrance of an open voting center during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
But so far, Maduro has instead asked the country’s supreme court — which like all institutions in Venezuela is packed with loyalists — to review any claims of irregularities.
“Respect for popular sovereignty is what moves us to defend the transparency of the (election) results,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Monday in a press conference alongside fellow leftist President Gabriel Boric of Chile.
Boric, who cast doubt on Maduro’s victory claim in an unexpectedly strong statement within hours of Venezuela’s July 28 election, told reporters that he and Lula discussed the situation in Venezuela on Monday, without elaborating. The leaders did not take questions and their carefully worded statements signaled how leftist leaders in the region are gingerly trying to show respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty while voicing doubts about the official results.
A few of Maduro’s staunch allies — including Russia, China and Cuba — have applauded his victory. On Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held a telephone call with Maduro and reiterated his congratulations and “condemned any foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs,” Pezeshkian’s office said.
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AP Writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
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Publish date : 2024-08-05 14:51:00
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