Venezuela’s opposition leader on Saturday emerged from hiding, saying: “We have never been so strong,” as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro slammed what he called attempts to “usurp the presidency” following last week’s disputed election.
Thousands gathered peacefully across Venezuela, including in the capital, Caracas, where Maria Corina Machado thrilled supporters with a surprise appearance in a truck bearing a banner reading “Venezuela has won.”
Machado, who spent much of the week in hiding after Maduro threatened her with arrest following deadly post-election protests, had backed the candidacy of Edmundo Gonzalez after she herself was banned from running.
Photo: AFP
Supporters say he won 67 percent of the July 28 vote, and several Latin American countries and the US have recognized him as president-elect.
Others have called on Venezuela to release detailed vote tallies, including EU states France, Germany, Italy and Spain, who on Saturday noted their “strong concern” about the results.
Brazil, Colombia and Mexico — which have maintained good relations with Maduro’s government — urged an “impartial verification” of the result.
“We have never been so strong as today,” Machado told the crowd. “The regime has never been weaker.”
“We are not going to leave the streets,” she said, surrounded by security.
Gonzalez was not seen publicly on Saturday.
Backers cried out “Freedom” as Machado’s truck passed by.
“Seeing her gives me hope, despite the threats. She is a light for Venezuela,” 26-year-old shopkeeper Adrian Pacheco said.
The Venezuelan National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro, on Friday proclaimed him the winner with 52 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Gonzalez, a result that defied pre-election polls.
Thousands of Maduro supporters on Saturday afternoon responded to his call for “the mother of all marches,” gathering in central Caracas to march to the presidential palace in the name of “national peace.”
“We will not accept” the opposition’s claims of victory and moves to “usurp the presidency of the republic again,” Maduro said at the rally.
Venezuela emigres in cities across the Americas also protested against Maduro and his claims of victory in the election.
“We don’t want violence, we just want him to leave, we only want peace,” 43-year-old Maudie Lopez, a crafts worker, said in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, where hundreds joined in song and prayer.
“I want to return to my country,” Lopez said.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS