The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduromade a joke on Monday about the opposition leader’s alleged escape from the country Maria Corina Machadowho is in hiding after threats of arrest for her allegations of fraud in the July 28 presidential elections.
“She, who fled the country, don’t tell anyone, she left the country, my sources tell me that she fled,” said Maduro, smiling, during his television program, without mentioning the opponent’s name.
They are cowards, they are good at sending messages of hate, of intolerance, but he left, the Gucci suitcases arrived”, added the president, who then sang “and he left and his ship called”, a phrase from the popular song “A sailboat called Liberdade”by José Luis Perales and Carlos Rivera.
The Venezuelan president has insisted for a few weeks that the opponent, in hiding for two months, is preparing to leave the country, just as the candidate did Edmundo González Urrutiawho received asylum in Spain following an arrest warrant issued against him in an investigation related to allegations of election fraud.
María Corina Machado, leader of the opposition in Venezuela, alongside candidate Edmundo González. Photo: Juan Barreto/AFP
A AFP tried to establish contact, without success so far, with the opposition leader’s team.
“I am where I feel most useful for the fight, in Venezuela“, Machado told AFP in an interview in late September.
At the beginning of October, she insisted: “Here, Nicolás Maduro is going to leave. I continue with the Venezuelans.”
Maduro was proclaimed winner of the July 28 election with 52% of the votes by the government-leaning National Electoral Council (CNE), which has not yet released detailed voting records, as required by law, claiming that its system was the target of a cyber attack.
The opposition, led by Machado, claims the victory of González Urrutia and published in a website copies almost 80% of the voting minuteswhich would demonstrate the triumph of their candidate. Chavismo denies the validity of documents.
United States, European Union and several Latin American countries did not recognize Maduro’s re-election.
