Thousands of people took to the streets of Venezuela’s capital Saturday, waving flags and singing the national anthem as they supported the opposition candidate who won a landslide victory in the presidential election.
advertisementThousands of people took to the streets of Venezuela’s capital on Saturday to support the opposition candidate they believe has won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election.
Authorities have declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of Venezuela’s general elections held last Sunday, but there are no final results yet confirming his victory.
Maduro’s government has arrested hundreds of opposition supporters who took to the streets in the days following the disputed vote, and has also threatened to detain opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and her handpicked presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez.
Supporters chanted and sang songs as Machado arrived at a rally in Caracas on Saturday.
Machado, who was banned from running for office by the Maduro government for 15 years, has been in hiding since Tuesday and says his life and freedom are in danger.
Masked men ransacked the opposition headquarters on Friday, stealing documents and destroying the building.
Maduro raised the Venezuelan flag on Saturday and promised that the government’s policies of displacing millions of its citizens would finally come to an end.
“We have already won the elections. Now the new phase has come. Just as it took a long time to win the elections, now the phase has come where we have to live every day. But we have never been as strong as we are today. The regime has never been as weak as it is today,” Machado said before thousands of supporters.
After the rally, Machado was given an inconspicuous shirt and was taken away on a motorcycle.
Gonzalez, who has been in hiding, did not show up for the event.
Maduro also urged his supporters to attend a “mother of all marches” elsewhere in Caracas on Saturday.
