Venezuela’s opposition, claiming victory in presidential elections they say were stolen by strongman Nicolas Maduro, gathered in the thousands in Caracas and elsewhere on Saturday, vowing to fight “to the end.”
People rallied in several cities in Venezuela and as far afield as Spain, Belgium and Australia in response to a call by opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to join a “Protest for the Truth.”
Machado herself came out of hiding to lead a rally in the capital, seeking to intensify pressure on Maduro to concede what she and others say was an overwhelming win for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in July 28 polls.
“We won’t leave the streets,” Machado told thousands of demonstrators, many of whom waved the national flag and copies of election records from their voting stations as proof of an opposition victory.
“Peaceful protest is our right,” she said as demonstrators chanted “Liberty! Liberty!” and clamored to get as near as possible to the wildly popular politician.
