ANDdmundo González and María Corina Machado They are together for the first time in a mobilization in the streets of Venezuela. Both opposition leaders called on their supporters this Saturday in The victoryGonzález’s hometown, which is about 95 kilometers by car from Caracas.
(Read here: Venezuela: opposition candidate Edmundo González promises not to persecute Nicolás Maduro if he wins the elections)
With music, harangues and Venezuelan flagsthe streets of The victory They started to fill up with people around 10 am (local time).
“Very excited. Today is a historic day for Venezuela. We are in La Victoria to prepare for a great national victory. What is happening moves our fibers and our hope. It is a country determined to change and that is convinced that we can only get out of this disaster with a change,” he said María Beatriz Martínez, president of the Primero Justicia movement and one of the participants in the march.
This campaign act is highly symbolic. Although Machado and González were at a public event this Thursday, this Saturday is their first major mass mobilization.
It is worth remembering that González Urrutia’s candidacy was registered in extremis, during a short extension of the application period. In principle it would be provisional but the parties of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) They ratified it unanimously.
What did they say during Thursday’s rally?
Edmundo González Urrutia, a 74-year-old diplomat, was appointed by the coalition PUD as a unitary candidate after the disqualification of the favorite María Corina Machado and the veto of the first option to replace her, Corina Yoris.
“Our commitment is to the reconciliation of Venezuelans,” said González. at an event organized by the party Citizen Meeting (EC), which makes up the alliance. “We will promote dialogue and understanding, and resolve differences respectfully.”
“We will all work together for a country in peace and harmony. Reconciliation is a promise, it is an action, it is a path that we will travel together”, he insisted. “From now until the 28th we have to be more united and organized” to “overcome the obstacles.”
Maduro also took to the streets this week
Thousands walked in rejection of the intensification of United States sanctions against this Caribbean countryamid questions about the conditions of the presidential elections.
“I really like marching,” the president said in a later televised address. “The marches are a festival of brilliance, passion and patriotism, that is why the Bolivarian people march, that is why hope is in the streets.”
Maduro aspires to a third term that will see him remain in power for 18 years. On Thursday he officially named his campaign team, headed by Jorge Rodríguez, the head of Parliament who already held this role six years ago.
The campaign, however, began months ago, when Maduro began to travel around the country and make public appearances that for years were the exception.
Chavismo predicts an avalanche of votes
In a proselytizing event in the state of Aragua (north), Cabello dismissed those who claim that a “crowd” is against Maduro, believing that it is an “old tactic” of the opposition that, he warned, plans to claim fraud in if the president is re-elected.
“On July 28 (…) an avalanche of votes will support Nicolás Maduro,” remarked the leader, in front of hundreds of supporters who gathered in the town of La Victoria, where the main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform ( PUD), also holds an event on Saturday to support its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.
“For him, women are incompetent (…) he doesn’t like black men, he doesn’t like indigenous people, he hates sexual diversity (…) they are exclusive by nature, they are haters by nature,” he said.
Instead, he assured that Maduro “has become the protector of the people of Venezuela” and “has always been aware” of the needs of the citizens.
*With AFP and Efe
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