Authorities number 23 wounded military personnel, some of them “with firearms”
At least one person has died and 46 have been arrested as part of protests that have taken place during the day in several localities in Venezuela in protest of the controversial re-election of Nicolas Maduro in the elections held this weekend, according to the Venezuelan Human Rights NGO Criminal Forum.
The organization has indicated the deceased has occurred in the state of Yaracuy (north) and that most of the arrests have taken place in Barinas, with 17 arrests, and Anzoátegui, with a dozen. The rest have occurred in Distrito Capital and Aragua, with six each; in Zulia, Carabobo, Miranda and Mérida.
In addition, it is added that at least 23 members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces have been injured, some “with firearms,” as they have been “victims of violent acts.” “We will not allow Venezuela to return to the darkness of 2014, 2017 and 2019,” said Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.
The holder of the portfolio has taken the opportunity to call on “the citizens and political forces of the country to remain calm and remain in the democratic game”: “Yesterday the Venezuelan people decided and gave us a demonstration of citizenship. Let us not fail that people who yesterday voted for peace,” he insisted.
Shortly before, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yvan Gil, has criticized that “thousands who do not know the will of the people went out to burn CLAP centers (Local Supply and Production Committee), beating people for being Chavista, destroying buses, burning vehicles of workers, shooting innocents.” “These people are the most undemocratic in the world, they are fascists, they will not return,” he added.
For his part, the Attorney General of the Latin American country, Tarek William Saab, has reported that during the day “some small sources of violence have been detected with the recurrent use of minors.” “There are already numerous detainees at the national level for the execution of vandalistic acts that sought to undermine the peace of the country,” he added.
Saab has warned that “the Public Prosecutor’s Office will punish with the maximum penalty those who intend to reissue the impeuns and guarimbas killers of 2014 and 2017,” referring to the waves of protests at the national level against Maduro caused by the institutional crisis in the country and that resulted in more than a hundred deaths, about 3,000 wounded and more than a thousand detainees.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo