The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, accused this Friday the opposition presidential candidates Edmundo González Urrutia and Enrique Márquez of trying to denounce fraud in the presidential elections of July 28 for not having signed a agreement for recognition of results.
“Why do you think they did not sign the agreement to respect the CNE and the results? Because they intend to shout fraud, because they intend to bring guarimba (protests with barricades and street blocks), violence and the coup d’état,” Maduro said at a rally in Maturín in eastern Venezuela.
González Urrutia, backed by opposition leader María Corina Machado, ruled out sign arguing that the agreement is “redundant” and that it is contemplated in the Barbados Agreement that he claims the government has violated.
Márquez, for his part, said this Friday that he did not sign the agreement because he considered it “not legal, unilateral, without consultation and useless.”
Eight of 10 candidates, including Maduro and candidates considered by the traditional opposition as favorable to the government, signed the agreement that, among other aspects, establishes the commitment to recognize that the electoral body has complied with electoral guarantees, which has been questioned by various sectors of Venezuelan civil society.
“Fascist right, if you eat the light, you will regret it. This united people is not going to allow you more guarimba, no to violence,” Maduro insisted. On several occasions, he has said that the opposition has prepared a plan of violence.
However, the opposition, which has denounced systematic persecution against it with the intention of “criminalizing the electoral route,” has insisted that it will seek to achieve a transition in the country through votes.
So far this year, at least 37 political leaders and social leaders have been arrested and accused of organizing alleged destabilizing plans in the country.
Meanwhile, several governments, including Brazil, have reiterated the importance of the elections in Venezuela having a “large presence of international observers”, and have expressed support for the agreements on electoral guarantees signed in Barbados.
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