Opposition candidate travels with his food to prevent the government from closing restaurants that serve him

Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia said Wednesday that he has begun bringing his own food on campaign tours after the government closed a restaurant that served him last week.

“I’m leaving with my lunch to avoid situations like the one on Sunday when they closed the La Pollera de Taguanes restaurant for having treated us so kindly,” he said in a video he recorded from a vehicle while traveling to Barcelona, ​​in the state of Anzoátegui, and in which he is seen with a cellar containing the food.

González, 74, said authorities closed the restaurant in Cojedes state, where he stopped to eat with his family on his way back from his tour in Barinas state over the weekend.

“Why punish workers for welcoming those who think differently? I hug them and thank them for their cordial attention with a smile and a lot of hope. This event adds to others that demonstrate the disrespect of those in power for Venezuelans,” he wrote on his X account along with a photograph in which the restaurant can be seen closed and with a closure label.

Several hotels, inns and restaurants have been sanctioned and closed by the country’s tax authority after offering their services to members of the opposition, including its leader María Corina Machado, winner of the opposition presidential primary but disqualified from holding public office.

The opposition and other members of civil society have said that the State uses the body as an “instrument of repression” and have denounced official electoral favoritism, as well as a wave of repression and persecution against dissidents, which they say has worsened in recent days.

Bus drivers who have transported opposition supporters to rallies, as well as people who offer logistical and technical services, including renting horns so that speeches can be heard clearly, have been arrested and/or intimidated.

At least 37 opposition activists have been arrested so far this year.

In several cases, the government has accused them of organizing alleged plans for violence in the electoral context in which Maduro is seeking his third term, with low popularity, according to recent opinion polls.

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