MADRID.- The Venezuelan opposition Antonio Ledezma reacted to the series of “arbitrary” arrests of activists and members of the campaign of the candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), Edmundo González Urrutia and the Vente Venezuela party, Maria Corina Machadoby the Nicolás Maduro regime.
“Maduro lacks popular support, he is alone, the Chavista militancy abandoned him and in desperation he commits many atrocities every day.” said Ledezma, who is coordinator of the International Political Council of María Corina Machado’s Campaign Command, reviewed a press release.
He added that “such is the degree of desperation and barbarism that Maduro is applying a fury of persecution and there are more than 300 political prisoners,” he said during his participation in a meeting with Venezuelan migrants in the community of Paracuellos in Madrid.
Ledezma also referred to the precarious situation in which the regime keeps Venezuelans. “Maduro does not care about people’s lives. In Venezuela the hospitals are in ruins, public services do not work, there is no electricity, he destroyed the economy, the oil industry, agricultural production,” he said.
“The minimum wage in Venezuela is three dollars a month and Maduro wants to be re-elected so that extreme poverty continues in Venezuela,” Ledezma warned.
Willingness to dialogue
Ledezma maintained that the PUD candidate, González Urrutia, has “the will to dialogue, to resolve with a tolerant spirit the great disagreements that generate noise, confusion and arouse fears.”
He indicated that if the PUD wins in the presidential elections on July 28, the government plan “will be applied with the consensus of all Venezuelans, since the problems are enormous.”
Ledezma also called on the Venezuelan Armed Forces to enforce the electoral result resulting from the elections.
“To the soldiers of the Institutional Armed Forces to enforce the resounding electoral result, which is announced with the option of Edmundo González Urrutia,” he said.
40 militants arrested
This Monday, the opposition party Vente Venezuela denounced the arrest by the security forces of two of its campaign collaborators in Caracas, so about 40 militants have been arrested so far this year, coinciding with the electoral campaign for the presidential elections, which will be held on July 28.
The detainees are Javier Cisneros, national youth coordinator of the party organization, and Gabriel González, journalist and member of the national communication team. “We demand to know his whereabouts and his immediate release,” the political group, whose candidate for the elections is González Urrutia, urged through their social networks.
In a press conference after this complaint, the opposition candidate asserted that “these events” will not “succeed” in “discouraging them from continuing in the electoral fight” in which they are “sure they will win.” “We will denounce this new attack by the Government in all appropriate international bodies because we will not allow them to continue committing these serious violations of the agreement,” he said.
Criminalized regime
Corina Machado, who was the winner of the opposition primaries but was subsequently disqualified, stated in said press conference that what is happening “in these last hours in Venezuela is the criminalized regime” positioning itself against “the electoral route ” and the campaign, while he regretted the conditions against those arrested.
In this sense, he insisted that of “each and every one” of the detainees, both from his party and its allies, “none have committed any crime,” since “the only thing they have done is dedicate themselves” to carrying out campaign activities. “They have been arbitrary detentions, temporary forced disappearance,” he stated before adding that during this time “they have not been allowed” contact with lawyers or family members and they have been denied the right to defense.
“These young people (González and Cisneros) are being linked to a file in which they are accused of investigating hate and association for crimes for the simple fact of accompanying our candidate to an activity in Vargas (La Guaira state). When there is total and absolute evidence, throughout the world, that it is far from being an incitement to violence. Rather, it was the opposite, a promotion of dialogue and respectful and peaceful rapprochement between citizens,” he stated.
The opposition leader asked for support from the international community, advocating to arrive at the electoral event with the right to be able to “freely choose who today represents the aspiration for change,” in reference to González. “We are doing it under conditions that are absolutely contrary not only to the Barbados Agreement, but to any standard of electoral competition activity,” she said.
“We want the world to be here accompanying the Venezuelans and letting those who are kidnapped today by this tyranny know that they are not alone. July 28 will be the day of liberation for each one of them and for all of Venezuela,” he expressed. .
Source: With information from Monitoreamos.com / AP / Europa Press
