When they learned that they were going to be arrested, María Corina Machado’s six collaborators took refuge in the Argentine diplomatic headquarters in Caracas, in March 2024. But their delicate situation required them to be cautious and that is why they had preferred to stay away from the press. However, this weekend they decided to speak for the first time and held a press conference to talk about the conditions to which they are being subjected by the Maduro regime. They are speaking now, almost nine months after seeking asylum, because they are “in a high-risk situation, and we don’t know if we will have the opportunity to talk again,” says Magalli Meda, head of the Machado and Edmundo González campaign. “The situation has become more complicated and the outcome is not very clear.” The conditions are increasingly more complex, Meda says through a video call. Next to her is Pedro Urruchurtu and Omar González. And, although they are not seen on screen, Claudia Macero, Humberto Villalobos, and Fernando Martínez also live in the residence. “The regime has decided to use this Embassy as a mechanism of coercion and pressure in the face of everything that they feel may violate their permanence in power,” says Meda. In recent weeks, opponents sheltered there have denounced harassment by the authorities, subjecting them to power cuts, water cuts, restrictions on food entry, and the constant presence of hooded armed men. Related News standard Yes They denounce the presence of snipers besieging the Argentine Embassy in Caracas Luis Pérez Pressure increases against the six opposition members who have taken refuge for almost nine months in the legation to which the Chavista regime has cut off electricity and water The six asylum seekers demand Venezuelan authorities to grant them safe passage that allows them to leave the Embassy and leave the country, but the requests continue to be ignored. “We are experiencing a unprecedented siege,” denounces Pedro Urruchurtu, who assures that he maintains constant communication with the Government of Argentina and Brazil, which is the one that has assumed the protection of the Embassy after Maduro expelled the Argentine diplomats. These months of confinement They have been “very exhausting,” says Meda, who recalls that they are about to complete three weeks without electricity service and that they live in constant fear that at any moment the officials who are outside the diplomatic headquarters are going to enter. “This is psychological harassment and we have to deal with it,” says Meda. “The bullying and harassment of which we are being victims has been escalating in these nine months,” describes Omar González. «No one enters here without authorization from the police of the Nicolás Maduro regime. Not even the maintenance workers of this building. “They have turned the neighborhood into dens of espionage centers and snipers.” The spiritual and mental damage is “tremendous,” says González, not only due to the uprooting of homes, but also due to the impossibility of having family members close during these festive seasons. «This is part of the torture we receive for fighting for freedom and democracy in Venezuela.» «What had to happen happened; The election was given and we won,” says Meda. «Here what comes now is a process where the victory has to be legitimized. Everything that they [el chavismo] “What they are doing is part of a process of refusing to accept the popular will and we do not know what they can do in the next 26 days, but we here already did what we had to do, which was win an election,” he stressed.Political prisoners deadWhile the siege of the Embassy continues, the prisoners that Chavismo imprisoned for political reasons after the coup on July 28 continue to die. This Monday the death of the third of them was confirmed. Osgual Alexander González Pérez, 43 years old, was arbitrarily detained on August 1 along with his 19-year-old son, and both were transferred to the Tocuyito prison, in the state of Carabobo. During the first days of confinement, Osgual presented symptoms of depression and during the month of December he was hospitalized due to severe abdominal pain, which the prison indicated was renal colic, but everything seemed to indicate that it was hepatitis, according to what he reported. the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory. The family was never informed of the condition, and medical attention arrived too late. This is the second death recorded in the Tocuyito prison of a detainee in the context of the post-election demonstrations, in less than 72 hours, and there are three in total. died in Venezuelan prisons.
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