The tension in Venezuela continues to escalate, with incidents in the streets between protesters who do not recognize Nicolas Maduro as re-elected president and the Bolivarian forces that support the president’s power after the controversial, and still unclear, elections last Sunday. Among the serious episodes, the opposition denounces the arrest of the leader Freddy Superlano, a former presidential candidate who joined the front led by María Corina Machado.
“We warn the international community about the repressive escalation of the dictatorship against activists of the democratic cause, who peacefully demand the publication of the election results”reported Voluntad Popular, the space to which Superlano belongs.
At least four people were killed and 44 others injured during protests on Monday against the re-election of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, questioned by the opposition and the international community amid allegations of fraud, according to NGOs.
“We have recorded 44 injured and 3 dead,” the National Hospital Survey, a network that monitors the hospital crisis, said on social media X. Two of the dead are from Aragua (center) and one from Caracas. These deaths add to the first reported in Yaracuy (northwest) by the NGO Foro Penal.
Meanwhile, the electoral observation department of the Organization of American States (OAS) said in a report that it cannot recognize the results reported by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE). Many Latin American leaders have rejected the results or said greater transparency is needed.
The OAS will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to discuss the elections.
“Under the current circumstances, the results announced by the National Electoral Council proclaiming Nicolás Maduro the winner of the presidential election cannot be recognized,” the OAS report said.
The report questions the fact that the Venezuelan body made a single announcement more than six hours after the closing of voting on Sunday and did not provide details of the polling stations processed, did not publish the minutes and only provided aggregate voting percentages.
“The CNE falsely described these data as ‘irreversible’. The figures published on the official channel also revealed arithmetic errors,” the OAS added.
The text published by the bloc also stated that the events of the election night confirm “a coordinated strategy, which has been deployed during the last few months, to undermine the integrity of the electoral process.”
The report also contains accounts of “illegalities, vices and bad practices” that occurred during this particular electoral process and in other recent ones in Venezuela, such as the disqualification of candidates, acts of intimidation, rejection of international observation or the lack of independence of the electoral body.
“The evidence shows an attempt by the regime to ignore the majority will expressed at the polls by millions of Venezuelans,” the text said.
Source: Ambito
