Far-right opposition politician María Corina Machado with a Venezuelan flag at a rally, on August 28, 2024, in Caracas. Photo: Juan Barreto/AFP/File photo.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, stated that the far-right opposition politician María Corina Machado had fled to Spain. “The old man [referring to former opposition candidate Edmundo González] left a month ago, and the Sayona [referring to María Corina Machado] also left,” Maduro said. “She fled, she first sent someone very close to her ahead, she waited, and got to her hideout somewhere in Spain.”
The statement, made during an official event this Wednesday, October 16, came minutes after the head of parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, reported that the opposition politician was “hiding in an embassy.” Machado has not appeared in public since August and has only posted videos and interviews through social media. Earlier this month, the far-right opposition leader said she had no plans to leave Venezuela.
In August, the Attorney General’s Office had opened a criminal investigation against Machado and González for the alleged commission of the crimes of usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to cause unrest, incitement to disobedience of the law, insurrection, criminal association, and conspiracy.
On the same day as President Maduro’s statement, Machado denied that she had fled Venezuela. “Venezuelans know that I am here in Venezuela, the people know it and Nicolás Maduro knows it too,” Machado said in an interview with the far-right Miami-based television channel EVTV. “What’s happening is that they are desperate to know where I am and I am not going to give them that pleasure.”
González, the former presidential candidate of the far-right opposition Democratic Unitary Platform, fled Venezuela and arrived in Madrid on September 8 as a “political asylum seeker,” after the Venezuelan government granted him safe conduct. Caracas said it granted the document “for the sake of tranquility and political peace” in the country.
Venezuela held presidential elections on July 28, in which President Maduro obtained 51.95% of the votes, while González, his closest contender, obtained 43.18% of the votes, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE). The results were ratified by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) on August 22, and official requests were made for the CNE to publish the results in the Electoral Gazette, something that some Chavista officials have said was done, but has not been publicly released or seen.
The far-right coalition Unitary Platform rejected the results and released falsified CNE voting records that supposedly “proved” that González was the winner of the elections. It should be noted that when these “records” were called into question, they refused to provide evidence to the TSJ.
(Sputnik) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
