Venezuela Opp. plans to oust Maduro
Caracas, July 17: Venezuela’s Opposition, encouraged by a massive turnout in a symbolic vote against President Nicolas Maduro, weighed a new strategy on Monday to intensify protests and stop his plan to rewrite the Constitution.
The Opposition coalition Democratic Unity Table now wants to outline its final offensive in its goal to oust Mr Maduro, after nearly four months of protests that left 96 dead.
Nearly 7.2 million Venezuelans — out of 19 million possible voters — cast ballots in the symbolic poll against Mr Maduro, university guarantors said with 95 per cent of votes counted.
The result may not have been binding, but Venezuela “sent a clear message to the national executive and the world”, announced Central University of Venezuela president Cecilia Garcia Arocha, noting that 6,492,381 voted in the country and 693,789 abroad.
Mr Garcia said final results would be released Monday.
“We do not want to be Cuba, we do not want to be a country without freedom,” said Julio Borges, leader of the Oppositioncontrolled Parliament.
In Miami, Madrid and across Latin America Venezuelans living abroad enthusiastically cast ballots in a vote organised on Sunday by the Opposition that sought to undermine unpopular President Nicolas Maduro.
“I feel like a liberator!” exclaimed Monica Rodriguez in Miami, the city with the biggest expatriate Venezuelan population and one of 500 worldwide to host a poll.
The 44-year-old, pushing her baby in a carriage, was one of thousands lined up to cast a ballot.
“This isn’t an election, it's a declaration” against Mr Maduro and his policies, said another, Rosa Tejeiro de Reyna, aged over 60.
Jose Hernandez, a representative of the Venezuelan Opposition in Miami, said, “Venezuelans are much more than what the government represents. And when we pull together democratically we can do so much more than everybody believes possible.” He estimated there were more than 100,000 voters in southern Florida.
According to 2015 census data, 273,000 Venezuelans live in the US, half of them in Florida, especially in and around Miami.
In Los Angeles, a Venezuelan actor, Edgar Ramirez, said the vote was a chance to stand up for “all those people who died from neglect, insecurity, and the lack of leadership and transparency in Venezuela.” Polling stations were set up across Latin America, which has experienced a mass influx of Venezuelans from across the border, and as many as 50,000 people were estimated to have voted on Sunday.