Venezuela’s Machado Fears for Her Life, She Writes in WSJ Op-Ed
- “I could be captured,” Machado said in WSJ opinion article
- Maduro continued to take hard line against the opposition
Maria Corina Machado emphasized that González was the rightful winner of Sunday’s presidential election, and called on the international community to help Venezuela.
Photographer: Gaby Oraa/BloombergVenezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is in hiding and fearing for her life, she wrote in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal.
“I could be captured as I write these words,” Machado wrote in the article, published Thursday. Her words come a day after President Nicolas Maduro said she and her stand-in candidate, Edmundo González, “should be behind bars.” A piece by the Journal’s editorial board said the government had already issued their arrest warrants, but the country’s top prosecutor did not respond to a request to confirm.
Machado again emphasized that González was the rightful winner of Sunday’s presidential election, and called on the international community to help Venezuela.
“We Venezuelans have done our duty. We have voted out Mr. Maduro,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”
She said that repression by the government must stop immediately, so that an urgent agreement can take place to facilitate the transition to democracy.
Just hours after Machado’s opinion piece published, Maduro addressed the nation on state television, warning that two maximum-security state prisons that were under renovation would soon be ready for the thousands of Venezuelans who have protested the election results.
The Tocorón and Tocuyito prisons will be ready in 15 days, and will take in the more than 1,200 protesters who have been arrested since Monday and another 1,000 who are to be arrested, he said. It was the latest hard line he’s taken against protesters, after on Wednesday promising they would serve at least 30 years in prison.
Read more: US Says Maduro Lost Venezuela Vote as He Seeks to Jail Rivals
The international community has long applied sanctions on Venezuela to weaken and potentially unseat Maduro with no success. So far after Sunday’s election, the US and other Latin American nations have said Maduro needs to provide proof of his self-declared win by showing ballot tabulations. The Group of Seven released a statement Thursday calling for the release of detailed voting data, and “for maximum restraint in the country and for a peaceful, democratic and Venezuelan-led solution.”
“Instead of hiding,” Machado and González should appear before the prosecutor’s office, Maduro said Wednesday, building on top lawmaker Jorge Rodríguez’s call for her arrest after Venezuelans took to the streets to protest this week.
Machado said most of her team is also currently in hiding, and six of her top aides who had taken refuge in the Argentine Embassy in Caracas fear an imminent raid, she said. Maduro has promised to respect the sovereignty of the embassy, which Brazil took custody of Thursday morning. Argentina’s embassy staff had been expelled by Maduro, who also gave diplomats from Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic until Friday to leave.
Amid speculation of a potential arrest, Costa Rica on Tuesday offered political asylum to Machado, González and all those facing persecution, including her aides at the Argentinian embassy.
At the time, Machado said she was grateful but said her duty was to continue fighting along Venezuelan people. It remains unclear if she accepted or will accept the proposal. Her press team didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
— With assistance from Andreina Itriago Acosta
(Updates in paragraphs two, and six to eight, with details of government actions and statements against the opposition and their supporters, and a statement from the Group of Seven.
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