MIAMI — Venezuelans around the world joined this Saturday the day of protest called by the leader of the Venezuelan opposition María Corina Machado, to demand a free, fair and transparent electoral process in the face of the presidential election scheduled for July 28.
“The world sees everything that unites us, Venezuelans are today united in a common dream“: liberate our country and reunite our families,” said Machado, who will not be able to participate in the upcoming electoral process, despite having been elected by more than two million Venezuelans in the internal opposition elections held last October. .
For this global day of protests, called “The world raises its voice”at least 50 cities were summoned where part of the Venezuelan diaspora resides, which according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), exceeds seven million.
Venezuelans in Barcelona, Bilbao, Gijón, La Coruña, Madrid and Valencia, in Spain; of Corato, Florencia, Genoa, Marina Di Camerota, Palermo and Pescara, in Italy; Buenos Aires, in Argentina; Berlin, in Germany; Brussels, in Belgium; Manaus, in Brazil; Toronto, in Canada; San José de Costa Rica, Panama City, Mexico City, New York and Miami, in United States; Bogotá, in Colombia; and The Hague, in the Netherlands, joined the demonstrations called by the national coordinator of the Vente Venezuela movement.
“The world admires the capacity for organization, resilience, and courage that we have shown,” Machado highlighted in his message, in which he stated that Venezuelans will not accept “less than what other democratic countries aspire to, we want to vote and elect.”
Venezuelans remain on the electoral route
The Venezuelan leader pointed out that Maduro, who aspires to be re-elected on July 28, “he wants to block the electoral route”prohibiting her participation and, subsequently, preventing the registration of her successor, the academic Corina Yoris.
Furthermore, the Chavista regime, which has created a political ecosystem “tailored to you” For this process, it has placed obstacles in the Electoral Registry (RE) process, scheduled from March 18 to July 16, both inside and outside the country.
According to the NGO expert in electoral matters, Súmate, at least ten million Venezuelans inside and outside of Venezuela need to register or update their data in the RE to be able to participate in the presidential elections.
Among them are four million Venezuelans between 18 and 35 years of age who are not registered to vote, three million of them in Venezuelan territory and more than 1.2 million abroad. There are also more than five million citizens who need to update their residence and voting center data, 1.5 million of them in Venezuela and more than four million abroad.
To make it impossible to register and update data in the electoral registry abroad, the Nicolás Maduro regime has imposed requirements that violate article 124 of the Organic Law of Electoral Processes, according to various complaints.
This rule establishes that “only voters who have residency or any other regime that denotes legality of permanence outside Venezuela may vote abroad.”
However, Venezuelans are required, in addition to the laminated identity card (current or expired), to have a current passport or proof of the procedure with Saime, in case the document is expired. Many Venezuelans abroad do not have this document, which has a cost about 300 dollars.
Likewise, they require citizens to have a permanent residence valid for more than one year.
With this day of global demonstration, Venezuelans seek to denounce before the international community the “electoral blockade” of the Chavista dictatorship, the violations of the political and human rights of citizens and demand the freedom of the almost 300 political prisoners in the country. South American.
Source: With information from Vente Venezuela
