Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is in hiding and fearing for her life, she wrote in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal.
“I could be captured as I write these words,” Machado wrote in the article, published Thursday. Her words come a day after President Nicolas Maduro said she and her stand-in candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, “should be behind bars”.
She again emphasised that Gonzalez was the rightful winner of Sunday’s presidential election, and called on the international community to help Venezuela.
“We Venezuelans have done our duty. We have voted out Mr Maduro,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”
She said repression by the government must stop immediately, so that an urgent agreement can take place to facilitate the transition to democracy.
The international community has long applied sanctions on Venezuela to weaken and potentially unseat Maduro with no success. So far after Sunday’s election, the US and other Latin American nations have said Maduro needs to provide proof of his self-declared win by showing ballot tabulations.
Venezuela’s top court on Thursday accepted a request by Maduro for all presidential candidates to present their vote tallies.
Maduro said on Wednesday his socialist party is ready to present all vote tallies and asked Supreme Justice Tribunal to ensure all parties do the same.
“Instead of hiding,” Machado and Gonzalez should appear before the prosecutor’s office, Maduro said on Wednesday, building on top lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez’s call for her arrest after Venezuelans took to the streets to protest this week.
Machado said most of her team is also currently in hiding, and six of her top aides who had taken refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas fear an imminent raid, she said. Maduro has promised to respect the sovereignty of the embassy, which Brazil took custody of on Thursday morning. Argentina’s embassy staff had been expelled by Maduro, who also gave diplomats from Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic until Friday to leave.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday there was “overwhelming evidence” that Urrutia won the election. “It is clear to the United States that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s presidential election,” Blinken said.
Amid speculation of a potential arrest, Costa Rica on Tuesday offered political asylum to Machado, Gonzalez and all those facing persecution, including her aides at the Argentinian embassy.
At the time, Machado said she was grateful but said her duty was to continue fighting along Venezuelan people. It remains unclear if she accepted or will accept the proposal. Her press team did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Bolivia’s leftist government, however, condemned what it described as “attempted coups” against Maduro.
Additional reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse
