CARACAS: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has mostly been in hiding since July 28 presidential polls, led a “Protest for the Truth” in Caracas on Saturday against Nicolas Maduro’s disputed claim of having won reelection.

Atop an opposition campaign truck, and surrounded by motorcyclists and cars waving the national flag, she joined hundreds of supporters gathered in the capital in response to her call for mass gatherings in more than 300 cities in Venezuela and abroad.

Earlier, Machado had called for the anti-Maduro movement to “remain firm and united” in the face of threats and violence. “They’re trying to scare us, to divide us, to paralyse us, to demoralise us, but they can’t because they are absolutely entrenched in their lies (and) violence,” she wrote on X.

Many protesters waved printed copies of election records from their voting stations, which they say prove the opposition won. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of a third six-year term until 2031, giving him 52 per cent of votes cast on July 28.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2024