Caracas, Sep 24 (EFE).- Hundreds of opposition supporters took to the streets of Caracas on Thursday to demand that their leader, María Corina Machado, who, according to her team, has been prevented from traveling to Venezuela, be allowed to return and that presidential elections be held in 2027.
“All we want is for her to return safely, to be able to engage in politics freely, and to be allowed to run for office,” Jesús Armas, a former political prisoner and former Caracas city councilman, told EFE.
According to her team, the private flight that was supposed to take the opposition leader from Panama on Tuesday as part of an itinerary to return to Venezuela “didn’t even take off” because Bonaire, Aruba, and Curaçao did not grant landing permission.
Armas emphasized the need for elections and for Machado to represent the opposition, given that she is barred from holding public office until 2036, according to a June 2023 report by the Comptroller General’s Office, then headed by Elvis Amoroso, the current president of the National Electoral Council.
“I think it’s very clear that the fact that, by the end of this year, we will have a CNE that represents the interests of Venezuelans is gaining more and more traction,” said the former councilman regarding the institution, which the opposition accuses of fraudulently declaring former leader Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026) the winner of the 2024 presidential election.
Jhillkys Alcila, regional political secretary of Vente Venezuela, Machado’s party, in the northern state of La Guaira, demanded the appointment of new officials to the CNE and the implementation of an electoral timeline that would put an end to the “tyrannical and now interim regime,” referring to the government of Interim President Delcy Rodríguez.
On Wednesday, Rodríguez promised before the 81st General Assembly of the United Nations elections in Venezuela under conditions of equality “for all,” though she did not specify a date.
On Tuesday, opposition figure Andrés Velásquez stated that Rodríguez “does not represent Venezuela” and that even if she holds meetings in New York, the UN’s international headquarters, this will not “whitewash” her responsibility for the “coup d’état committed” in July 2024, referring to the presidential election, in which he defends the victory of opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia. EFE
rbc/mcd
