The ‘Comando con Venezuela’, the political coalition movement of María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, has called for a mobilization in Caracas next Sunday, December 1st. It is the first call to protest they have made since the end of September, when they called for ephemeral protests in “swarm mode,” in which they failed to mobilize many people. Amid an onslaught of government repression, the opposition has said it has moved on to a stage of resistance, with dozens of leaders imprisoned, the presidential candidate in exile and the main leader of the democratic coalition in hiding. The call for this Sunday, at four in the afternoon in Plaza La Castellana – the financial heart of Caracas – implies a challenge.
By Florantonia Singer / elpais.com
“We have to act now, this December 1st will be a unique, unprecedented protest, with our hands painted red, with courage. The whole world is going to focus on the cause of a country that has decided to move forward until the end,” Machado said in a virtual meeting with opposition leaders and activists.
The slogan chosen is January 10 is now, and refers to the day of the formal start of the new presidential period in Venezuela, when Nicolás Maduro is scheduled to be sworn in again for a third term, amid allegations of fraud in the July 28 elections. González Urrutia, who has traveled the world defending his victory in the vote, also hopes to take office. To do so, he must return to the country after having gone into exile in Spain at the beginning of September.
The opposition has said that it is a vigil and its objective is to accompany the relatives of political prisoners. More than 2,500 people have been arrested in the country after the presidential elections. Most of them were arrested during protests against the results as announced by the National Electoral Council, controlled by Chavismo, which proclaimed Maduro the winner without yet —four months after the elections— ever presenting the disaggregated results, as required by law and the Supreme Court ruling. A few weeks ago the Government announced the review of 225 files of those arrested and promised releases. A hundred were carried out, but there are still adolescent prisoners detained for whom there has been greater pressure to be freed by family members and human rights defenders.
For almost two months, the opposition has withdrawn from its massive demonstrations in Venezuela and focused its strategy on the diplomatic field by denouncing the electoral fraud, with evidence of 83% of the total official records collected by its witnesses on the night of the vote, in which González emerged the overwhelming winner. The opposition coalition hopes that international pressure on the Maduro government will increase after the recognition of González Urrutia as “president-elect” by countries such as the United States, Italy and Ecuador and starting on January 10th, when Maduro intends to begin a new mandate lacking legitimacy, according to complaints about the election results made by the opposition and observers who participated in the event, such as the Carter Center and the United Nations Panel of Experts.