 "Venezuela's opposition calls for mass protests as Maduro's inauguration ceremony nears")
Venezuela’s opposition called Sunday for mass protests on January 9, a day before President Nicolas Maduro is set to begin a third term following his widely disputed reelection.
“This day will be recorded in history as the day Venezuela said: enough!” popular opposition figure Maria Corina Machado said in a video shared on X.
“Freedom cannot be begged for… it must be conquered, it must be won.”
Machado claims that Maduro was soundly defeated in the July 28 vote by her party’s candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who has since been recognized as president-elect by the United States, Italy and several Latin American countries.
Venezuelan electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner shortly after the vote but have yet to release detailed results.
The opposition meanwhile has released a large set of polling-site results, showing Gonzalez Urrutia winning by a wide margin.
Mass protests broke out in the wake of the election, with a wave of crackdowns and clashes leaving at least 28 people dead and over 2,000 arrested.
Machado has been in hiding since the election but has appeared intermittently at protests in the capital Caracas.
“I’m going with you. This January 9th, EVERYONE in the streets, in Venezuela and around the world,” Machado wrote on X.
Gonzalez Urrutia, who fled the country to Spain in September after being targeted by an arrest warrant, is currently on an international tour and was expected to be in Washington on Monday after stops in Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Third stop: Washington DC,” he posted Sunday evening on X.
The 75-year-old former diplomat has pledged to return to his country to be sworn in as president on January 10.
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