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Maduro admits arresting over 2,000 people amid Venezuela unrest — MercoPress

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Maduro admits arresting over 2,000 people amid Venezuela unrest — MercoPress

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Maduro admits more than 2,000 arrests in Venezuela unrest

Sunday, August fourth place 2024 – 21:03 (UTC)



“Maximum punishment! Justice!” Maduro promises those he calls “violent protesters”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro acknowledged the riots that followed his announcement of re-election as president from 2025 to 2031, which led to more than 2,000 arrests, while opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and his supporters claimed they had received about 67% of the vote.

“We captured 2,000 prisoners and put them in Tocolón and Tocuitó (prisons). The harshest punishment! Justice! There will be no amnesty this time, there will be no amnesty this time, there will be Tocolón!,” he told a crowd of followers at a rally in Caracas on Saturday.

Maduro insisted that the detainees’ actions were serious and would receive full justice. The incumbent president blamed protesters for burning various electoral centers as well as some regional headquarters of the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Maduro also pointed out that “they all pleaded guilty because they had gone through a rigorous legal process, led by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, with full guarantees, and they were all convicted and pleaded guilty.”

Last Thursday, Maduro ordered the two prisons to be converted into maximum security detention centers for opponents of his regime. “I am preparing two prisons that must be completed in 15 days, they are already being prepared (Tocolón and Tocuito), where all the guarimberos (violent demonstrators) will be put,” while underscoring the coup narrative.

Relatives of the arrested and some NGOs have denounced the fact that they are unable to visit their loved ones or provide them with legal advice. Stefania Migliorini of the NGO Foro Penal told EFE that some of the arrested were taken to “terrorist courts” and were unable to obtain a defense.

On Sunday, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said there were no arrest warrants for opposition leaders González Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado. However, Saab said in an interview with Colombian Radio Caracol that since “some people are burning public offices, any leader involved in these “terrorist acts” will be arrested. He also pointed out that “no members of the security services were involved” in the violence, which left at least 20 people dead, which in Saab’s opinion was caused by the “violence” in the protesters’ behavior.

“The violence of the protesters themselves resulted in 20 deaths. They tried to burn down the mayor’s office in Puerto Veracruz, in Anzoátegui state, with 10 people there. They tried to burn down the headquarters of the government party in El Tigre, with 20 people there,” he explained.

Currently, more than 40 countries have recognized Maduro’s victory: Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Western Sahara, Zimbabwe, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Laos, North Korea, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, Vietnam, Myanmar, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

On the other hand, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay and the United States have all expressed support for González Urrutia to become the next president of Venezuela.



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