Over the weekend, several photographs circulated of the messages left at the campaign headquarters of Venezuelan opposition member María Corina Machado, specifically at the Táchira state headquarters. These are threats that were attributed to the National Liberation Army (ELN).
(Read also: Death threats against María Corina Machado appear in the state of Táchira)
But this Tuesday, through a statement, The ELN distanced itself from the facts, alleging that it had nothing to do with the messages left at Machado’s headquarters nor with the death threats against the opposition leader.
In the statement, the organization states that “these events occurred at a time when the opposition candidate was disqualified from holding public office for 15 years by the Comptroller General of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
And, they point out, “they are a publicity stunt to raise the profile of the candidate and incidentally involve our organization in matters of the national sovereignty of the neighbor country that today officiates as part of the guarantors in the dialogues held by the ELN and the national government of Colombia.”
The armed group insisted in its communiqué that they are being linked to these events with “the intention of classifying the ELN as a binational organization, that operates beyond the Colombian borders and incidentally strengthen the media matrix that seeks to define us as an international threat and win allies in the political and military siege that the US interventionist policy has been advancing against the ELN and the sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”.
For his part, The governor of the border state of Táchira, Freddy Bernal, assured that the messages were painted by the same supporters of Machado.
“She continues with her crazy things,” Bernal said, referring to the opponent.
Machado leads the vote intention polls for the upcoming primaries on October 22, in which Nicolás Maduro’s opponent will be chosen for the 2024 presidential elections.
ANA MARIA RODRIGUEZ BRAZON
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
CARACAS
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