The Venezuelan president and candidate for reelection, Nicolas Maduroannounced this Friday, during a campaign event in the northwest of the country, a “closing campaign offensive” in the final stretch towards the presidential elections of July 28in which he will seek a third six-year term in power.
“Today, Friday, July 19, the closing offensive of the campaign begins towards victory on July 28”said the president at the event held in the state of Falcón, broadcast by the state channel VTV.
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Maduro, in power since 2013, said that the 28th will be “a great and blessed day” when -he predicted- the National Electoral Council (CNE) will announce its “triumph”.
“Soon we will see each other with victory in hand”he promised his followers in that coastal region, where he reiterated that, in the elections, it is decided “the future of the next 50 years” of the country, without explaining the reasons or the why of that period of time.
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In this regard, he stressed the importance of “the decision of July 28”day of which “It depends on peace or war” and whether the nation will be “an independent republic” or will become “a gringo colony”.
He also again accused the main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) -which supports the candidacy of the former ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia-, to prepare alleged “plans to cry fraud” and try to “to tarnish the electoral process”which this anti-Chavez sector has denied.
What’s coming
The campaign, which began on July 4, entered its final stage on Friday, which ends on the 25th, according to what was established by the electoral body.
The PUD, opposition leaders and activists and several NGOs have denounced, during the development of the campaign, dozens of “arbitrary” arrests, as well as multiple “obstacles” On the roads, closure of businesses that served González Urrutia or the anti-Chavez leader Maria Corina Machado and retention of work teams.
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As of Wednesday, according to the PUD, security officials had arrested 72 people since July 4, of whom more than 20 remain in jail.
This Friday, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay issued a joint statement expressing their concern and denouncing “the systematic harassment and persecution of leaders and supporters of the Venezuelan opposition”as well as against members of civil society, which they consider a serious obstacle to the realization of a legitimate electoral process.
