Opponent Machado said Venezuelans would hold protests in more than 300 cities around the world on Saturday.

Caracas– Anti-Chavez leader Maria Corina Machado said Thursday that Venezuelans in more than 300 cities around the world will join protests called by the majority opposition on Saturday to defend the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia in the presidential election on July 28, despite the electoral body declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner.

Machado predicted that August 17 would be a “great day” and he assured, through a video published on social networks, that the majority of the opposition had received “confirmation that Venezuelans from more than 300 cities around the world will leave accompanied by citizens from all over the world.”

“In Venezuela, we will meet in dozens of cities and embrace each other to show the world the power we have and to make it clear to the regime that they will not stop us,” said the former deputy congressman and leading supporter of González Urrutia.

He noted that after the elections, a “new phase” is developing, which, he explained, includes “preserving the sovereignty of the people and the truth expressed on July 28,” “conducting negotiations” for “democratic transformation.”

“We will preserve popular sovereignty, we will advance the transition to democracy and we will bring our children home,” Machado said, adding that today “the regime is weaker than ever before.”

Last Tuesday, the largest opposition alliance – the Democratic Unity Platform (PUD) – planned a mobilization on Saturday in about 115 cities around the world, inviting anyone who wants to organize a demonstration in their location to write to the email address you share on social networks.

This Thursday, González Urrutia urged Maduro “not to further delay the peaceful transition that the country elected in the presidential elections,” warning that “the decision that continues to ignore the will of the people expressed in the December 28 vote” “will affect” democracy in July.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner, but the results have not yet been announced 18 days after the election and have been questioned by many countries and organizations, which have called on the body to maintain transparency.

The PUD insisted that its standard-bearer’s victory was confirmed by “83.5 percent” of the “minutes” it claimed to have obtained, thanks to witnesses and poll workers at the election. JS