Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has vowed to “pulverise” the latest challenge to his rule and told troops he is “willing to do anything” to protect his “revolution” amid growing criticism of the crackdown that followed last week’s disputed election.
Mr Maduro says more than 2,000 people have been arrested in the days since the July 28th vote while human rights groups say at least 22 people have been killed.
On Sunday, the EU said it was “seriously concerned” about the growing number of arbitrary detentions in Venezuela and the harassment of the opposition, which has produced evidence suggesting its candidate, Edmundo González, won the election.
“The European Union calls on Venezuelan authorities to put an end to arbitrary detentions, repression and violent rhetoric against members of the opposition and civil society, and to release all political prisoners,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.
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Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly also condemned the violence in a statement on Sunday and said citizen witnesses and international observers had provided “credible evidence” that the results provided by Maduro’s authorities “don’t reflect the will of the Venezuelan people”.
Mr Maduro, who claims he won the election but has yet to provide proof, rejected such criticism on Sunday during a military ceremony in Caracas.
“The EU is a disgrace,” Mr Maduro told members of the Bolivarian National Guard, a branch of the military that has been involved in the clampdown.
Decorating troops whom Mr Maduro said were injured while responding to post-election disturbances last Monday and Tuesday, Venezuela’s authoritarian president said: “We are confronting, defeating, containing and pulverising an attempted coup in Venezuela”.
Mr Maduro, who was elected after the 2013 death of his mentor Hugo Chávez, urged military chiefs to order a “total deployment” of their troops in response to the opposition challenge.
Earlier, Venezuela’s president told troops equipped with rifles and riot shields: “You can be certain that we will go after all of the criminals and all of the fascists because fascism will not seize power in Venezuela. I am willing to do anything and I am counting on you to ensure order, law and the constitution prevail.”
Sunday’s event appeared designed to send a message of military unity at a time when Mr Maduro’s political opponents have been urging the armed forces to abandon Mr Chávez’s unpopular heir. Twenty-four hours earlier, tens of thousands of pro-government protests marched to the presidential palace in what was designed to be a similar show of public support.
The government’s increasingly hard-line rhetoric and the wave of arrests has spooked government opponents although they returned to the streets on Saturday after being summoned by María Corina Machado, the charismatic opposition leader who turbocharged Mr González’s campaign.
“After six days of brutal repression they thought they would silence us, frighten us and paralyse us ... [But] we are going to go all the way,” Ms Machado told thousands of supporters.
Writing in the Economist, Mr González rejected Maduro’s claim that his campaign was responsible for stirring up violence or behind a conspiracy to illegally seize power.
“It would be against my principles and against my lifelong record to advocate any violence, let alone a coup d’etat. The regime, on the contrary, seems to be willing to stay in power by any means possible, including the use of violence,” added Mr González, a 74-year-old diplomat who agreed to stand for the presidency after Ms Machado was banned from running.
The former ambassador claimed he had won “a large, indisputable majority” in the election and called for “a competent, impartial verification of the election results with urgency”.
The US and other countries have recognised Mr González’s win while left-wing governments of Venezuela’s neighbours, Brazil and Colombia, have urged Mr Maduro to release detailed election data in a bid to defuse the growing crisis.
But Mr Maduro, who is widely blamed for a crippling economic crisis that has forced about eight million citizens to flee abroad, has given no hint of being prepared to publicly release such data, let alone relinquish power.
On Sunday he called one political opponent “a filthy rat” and others “demonic forces”, comparing his foes to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco. “I will never surrender,” he declared. – Guardian