Thousands expected Saturday at Bayfront Park rally against election fraud in Venezuela
As Venezuelans around the world prepare to gather to protest what is widely seen as election fraud by the Caracas regime, organizers of the event in Miami say that they expect thousands of people to show up Saturday afternoon in Bayfront Park to let their countrymen fighting for freedom inside Venezuela know they are not alone.
The event, organized with the help of Miami city officials and the Cuban-American community, also seeks to send U.S. officials a message: Their help is urgently needed to stop strongman Nicolás Maduro from stealing the election, in what many Venezuelans see as their last opportunity to gain their freedom from a brutal dictatorship.
“We aim to express our support to our brothers and sisters in Venezuela, to reassure them that they are not alone, to let them know that here we are fighting for them too,” said María Teresa Morín, regional coordinator of Vente Venezuela, the political party of opposition leader María Corina Machado. Despite regime claims that Maduro won reelection to the presidency, a paper trail of the vote shows opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won with a better than 2-1 ratio of the vote.
“And, of course in what is very important to us, we want to send a message to the authorities of this country and of the world, so that they can understand that we Venezuelans will continue to defend the victory that was demonstrated on July 28 and that we hope that the world will act accordingly to enforce the will of the people,” Morín added.
The Miami event, scheduled to start at 4 p.m. in Downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park, will be hosted by city officials and Venezuelan community leaders. Artists including Willy Chirino, Arturo Sandoval, Amaury Gutiérrez and Danny Ocean are expected to perform, but Morín said there is a serious undertone to the gathering. “This is not a party. All the music and all of the literature that will be heard will be a reminder of the fight for freedom in Venezuela,” she said.
Similar events have been scheduled in 300 cities around the world, in Latin American capitals with large Venezuelan communities as well as in Madrid, Brussels, London, Amsterdam, Rome and Melbourne, Australia. Machado asked the more than 7.7 million Venezuelans who have left the country fleeing the regime to take part in the international movement that seeks to convince other countries that González won the election.
In the U.S., events have been planned in New York and Washington, D.C.
Protests against the regime inside Venezuela and around the world began right after the regime-controlled National Electoral Council said Maduro had won with nearly 52% of the vote.
The opposition, which has made a credible case showing that Gonzalez won by publishing the official results of 80% of voting stations, have been warning Latin American leaders that it is in their best interest to intervene quickly to help put an end to the crisis, given the risk of another massive wave of Venezuelan refugees fleeing for neighboring countries, and eventually the U.S., if Maduro remains in power.
Gatherings are also being organized for Saturday inside Venezuela despite the regime’s latest wave of repression, which has led to the deaths of 25 people, injured dozens more and landed more than 2,000 in prison. The crackdown has recently taken a more violent turn with the regime’s use of armed paramilitary groups witnesses say have opened fire at demonstrators without justification.
Among those arrested are high ranking members of the opposition movement. Some of them have been hospitalized after receiving severe beatings, while human rights groups fear others have been tortured.
Machado, who is considered the leader of the Venezuelan opposition and the key architect of Maduro’s electoral defeat, wrote recently in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that she was in hiding and feared for her life.
This story was originally published August 16, 2024 at 4:55 PM.
