By Luis De Jesus
02 Aug 2024, 22:41 PM EDT
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on Friday that political groups from the campaign of opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia are planning an alleged attack in Caracas this Saturday.
The protests were called by opposition leader María Corina Machado, in rejection of the results of the National Electoral Council, which gave Maduro the victory.
“I want to report a new ambush that is planned for tomorrow, Saturday. I thought about it very carefully, because we could be revealing a source of information that we have been working on from criminal groups belonging to the commandos,” said Maduro through the state channel VTV.
“Some of these groups of commandos, armed with grenades and other weapons, plan to carry out an attack tomorrow in the Bello Monte area (in Caracas),” he added.
He also said that this is not the first time that the opposition has attempted to attack its own military and warned of “possible commandos, carried out by the same commandos” under alleged orders from the leader María Corina Machado and the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
According to the democratic opposition, Edmundo González won the presidential election with more than 80% of the votes supporting his victory.
“This far right is an expert in false positives. And they are very upset, because the people taught them a lesson. They were unable, with their ambush, to seize power,” declared the president.
In light of this, he said he had given precise orders for intelligence, counterintelligence, security and police forces to “protect” Caracas on Saturday.
Maduro also accused the United States government, along with Elon Musk and Argentine President Javier Milei, of leading a “coup d’état” in Venezuela, something he also denounced on Monday, but he blamed the opposition.
Five days after the elections, the National Electoral Council ratified in a second bulletin the alleged re-election of Maduro in the elections with 51.95% of the votes, compared to 43.18% for González Urrutia, with 96.87% of the minutes counted, which the institution has not yet published.
The Carter Center, which participated as an observer in the elections, declared on Tuesday that the process “did not conform to the parameters and international standards of electoral integrity, and therefore cannot be considered a democratic election, both due to the management of the electoral campaign and the day of voting and the day after.”
Keep reading:
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• “They could capture me as I write this”: María Corina Machado says she is in hiding for fear of her safety amid Venezuela’s political crisis
• The US recognizes that Edmundo González won the elections in Venezuela