Venezuelan opposition exercises politics from the reservation

Members of the majority opposition in Venezuela went from being permanently on the streets to practicing politics from the shelter and virtuality, in the face of the “persecution” that they denounce against them, especially after the presidential elections of July 28, in which Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed winnerwhich anti-Chavismo considers fraudulent.

The leader María Corina Machado has been in “clandestinity” since August 1fearing for her “life” and “freedom”, and has gone out punctually to some demonstrations, to which she has arrived undercover.

According to the former deputy, it was precisely “the growing threats” that prompted the departure from the country of the standard-bearer of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) – the largest opposition bloc -, Edmundo González Urrutia, who arrived in Spain on September 8, to request asylum. considering that he was suffering political and judicial persecution in Venezuela.

For Juan Pablo Guanipa, a close collaborator of both opposition leaders, although before July 28 “Persecution was a reality,” Later it has been “irrepressible”, with a “repression” against “all political leaders.”

“That forced us to protect ourselves and, in my case, to leave punctually, when there is an important call,” the former deputy told EFE, who pointed out that “many” “national, regional, municipal and parish” leaders, even from the “sector student”, are in this situation.

The government, for its part, pointed out the questions to the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE) – which are still unknown in a disaggregated manner – as an attempted coup d’état “of a fascist nature.”

Another “way” of doing politics

The reservation, as Guanipa explained, forces them to give up the street and, therefore, direct contact with citizens and representatives of different sectors, which is why the “way” of doing politics changes, becoming a “virtual leader.”

«We have to see how we can be useful in the midst of the situation“said the 59-year-old opponent.

The former first vice president of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament) says he has reinvented himself, and now dedicates himself, in large part, to constantly publishing on networks as a “communication mechanism with the people”, through which he disseminates information about “the “fight” for “political change,” and to try to generate “hope and optimism.”

Likewise, he continued, the reservation forces them to abandon, for an indefinite period, their “natural space”, in reference to their home, which, in their case, is in the state of Zulia (northwest, bordering Colombia), more than half a mile away. a thousand kilometers away from where, he assured, he is today.

«(We are) changing places permanently (…) I have to move if there is any unusual movement, (like) recently in a place where I was (that) a van from the Sebin (Bolivarian Intelligence Service) arrived, got out, spoke to the vigilant, I don’t know if it was because of me or another person (…) but that forced me to move immediately, that is, we are in a situation of persecution,” he said.

Guanipa claimed to have become “a persecuted person” from “a dictatorship that does not accept that the people told him that they do not want him to govern anymore, and tries to continue governing against the will of the people” who, according to the PUD, voted widely for González Urrutia.

The opposition is persecuted in Venezuela

At least 157 opposition politicians and social activists are currently detained in Venezuela, many of them collaborators of González Urrutia and Machado, according to the Human Rights Committee of the Vente Venezuela (VV) formation, led by the former deputy.

Meanwhile, since March, six opponents have been sheltered in the official residence of the Argentine Embassy in Caracas, under the protection of Brazil after the expulsion of the diplomatic mission of the southern country, an authorization that, however, Venezuela revoked from the South American giant on the 7th. of September.

Guanipa has denounced arrest attempts against him in “the last three” demonstrations in which he participated, a “luck” that, he noted, some of his colleagues did not suffer, including Freddy Superlano, Perkins Rocha and Biagio Pilieri, also collaborators. of the PUD.

Despite everything, he says he is willing to attend future meetings to fulfill the commitment he feels to the people, taking security measures, even “knowing that there will always be a risk.”