By Robert Andre Emmanuel
Over 50 members of the Venezuelan community in Antigua and Barbuda held a pro-democracy solidarity Mass at the Holy Family Cathedral on Saturday.
The event was organized by the community was attended by over fifty members of the Venezuelan community who came to pray for peace, justice and democracy in Venezuela.
This after Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro the winner of last month’s election — who will lead the country for a third six-year term until 2031 — by giving him 52 percent of votes cast on July 28.,
But countries such as Brazil, Colombia and the US have questioned the results, claiming the CNE have not provided a detailed breakdown of the results.
On Saturday, Maria Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since the July 28 presidential polls, led a “Protest for the Truth” in Caracas.
Leaders of Venezuela’s opposition have also called on Venezuelans across the globe to “take to the streets” on August 17 in solidarity as they declared that their candidate, Edmundo González won the country’s presidential election.
This call has been reportedly backed by the European Union and the US while several other Latin American nations have so far held off recognising Mr Maduro as the winner of last month’s poll—according to international media.
During Saturday’s solidarity Mass, the participants also assembled on the steps of the Holy Family Cathedral where they sang Venezuelan songs, holding up flags of their home country and wearing Venezuelan shirts, stating “Viva Venezuela”.
According to one of the organisers who informed Observer media of the meeting, the Saturday Mass was their expression of support for democracy and peace in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan embassy also held its own “meeting with Friends of Venezuela” on Saturday to counter what they claimed were “attacks against Venezuela, the misinformation of the media, [and] the violence of extremists”.
Controversy over the presidential elections in Venezuela have been ongoing since 2018 after President Maduro won a second term, which critics of his government claimed was “illegitimate”.
Last Friday, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) formally approved a resolution calling the Venezuela’s National Electoral Council to “expeditiously publish the presidential election records, including the voting results at the level of each polling station, and respect the fundamental principle of popular sovereignty through an impartial verification of the results that ensures the transparency, credibility, and legitimacy of the electoral process.”
