Venezuela’s Machado says Maduro relies on military to maintain power

LIMA (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said today that President Nicolas Maduro has “established contacts with the country’s top military leaders” in a bid to stay in power after last month’s disputed elections.

The opposition says the electoral body, the CNE, is loyal to Maduro and declared him the winner of a second term in the July 28 election, while the opposition says its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won.

The CNE has yet to release detailed voting results, and its website has been down since the early hours of July 29. The opposition has published the results online, which showed González received twice as many votes as Maduro.

Machado held an online press conference today with Colombian, Ecuadorian and Peruvian media, calling on Venezuelans at home and abroad to protest on Saturday to force Maduro to “respect” the election results.

“What Maduro chose to do is consolidate himself in supreme military command, and that’s all he has left,” Machado said.

Venezuela’s military has long backed Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, and there have been no public signs since the election that the armed forces leader would break away from the government.

Machado published a letter calling on the police and military to abandon Maduro and is under criminal investigation for allegedly inciting the police and military to engage in civil disobedience.

Security forces have also launched a crackdown on those responsible for violence during post-election protests, arresting more than 2,400 people in a move that advocacy groups say has deterred people from taking to the streets.

“Maduro has misjudged the weighing of his options,” Machado said. “We need to put pressure on him to make him understand that the best option for him is to accept the terms of a negotiated transition.”

In an interview with the newspaper El País at the weekend, she said plans for power-sharing between the ruling and opposition parties were not currently under consideration.

Western countries have widely condemned Maduro’s actions as fraudulent, but they have also adopted a cautious approach given previous diplomatic failures.