Last Saturday, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado spearheaded a significant protest in Caracas. She and her supporters addressed the crowd from the top of a truck amidst thousands of demonstrators who chanted “Freedom, freedom.”
Following the contentious presidential elections the previous Sunday, both the government and opposition mobilised demonstrations in the Venezuelan capital on Saturday, further inflaming tensions in the South American nation.
President Nicolás Maduro and his rivals claimed victory while international calls for a negotiated resolution grew louder. On Friday, the Supreme Court of Justice instructed the electoral authority to tally the votes from polling stations within three days.
Maduro accused the opposition of inciting the protests that erupted earlier in the week, leading to 11 deaths and over 1,200 arrests, according to NGOs. The unrest followed the National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by the ruling party, declaring Maduro the winner of the July 28 presidential elections—a result the opposition refused to accept.
Meanwhile, Machado gathered her supporters in a district located east of the capital, a stronghold for the opposition, to celebrate the election of her ally Edmundo González.
In response, the ruling party called on its supporters in Caracas to participate in the “mother of all marches” to celebrate what they claimed was Nicolás Maduro’s re-election for a third term.
Maduro ramped up his criticism of the opposition recently, particularly targeting María Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo González.
“Today, he was afraid to swear himself in. He did not go to the opposition march. The gentleman was afraid today. They were going to put the sash on him today, and he was going to be sworn in. He was afraid. You dripped, González Urrutia.” said Maduro.
Maduro has held both opposition leaders accountable for the demonstrations that occurred earlier in the week in Caracas and various cities inland, resulting in 11 fatalities and 939 detentions, including 90 minors, as reported by humanitarian organisations.
“We are winning,” Maduro told his supporters.
Maduro downplayed the importance of the opposition factions’ claims, and he urged the National Electoral Council to make the vote count documents public, while stating that their motives are solely based on hostility and retaliation.