Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she is in hiding and that she fears for her freedom and for her life, in an op-ed published on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.

Machado, who is the main force behind the presidential candidacy of former ambassador Edmundo González, emphasized that Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro lost Sunday’s election and that she can prove it.

“I write this from hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom and that of my fellow countrymen under the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro,” Machado wrote in an editorial titled: I can prove that Maduro got trounced.

“Mr. Maduro did not win the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday. He lost by a landslide to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%. I know this to be true because I can prove it. I have receipts obtained directly from more than 80% of the country’s polling stations.”

Machado has not been seen for 24 hours.

  • Deceptichum@quokk.auEnglish
    2950·
    5 months ago

    “I have proof to back up my claim but I’m not going to present it.”

    Suuuure buddy.

    • Ranvier@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      495·
      5 months ago

      Following the CNE’s announcement that Maduro won the election, the Venezuelan opposition has concentrated its efforts on digitizing and publishing on the internet the voting records showing that González won with nearly 70% of the votes, documents that the regime has so far been unable to produce.

      Literally what the opposition is trying to do right now as Maduro hunts them across the country, trying to imprison them all or worse. Over 1,000 people from the opposition the regime Maduro has imprisoned. Meanwhile Maduro hasn’t released any documentation that backs up his ridiculous results, results that conflict with numerous independent exit polls that show a landslide victory for the opposition. The election monitors Maduro himself invited, the Carter Center, have widely condemned the election. Leftist leaders in Colombia and Brazil are condemning him.

      https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-presidential-election-maduro-machado-edmundo-results-3ec88b273cabfee8e5696ff67d24186d

      The mission, led by the Carter Center, a pro-democracy organization, said late Tuesday that the election violated Venezuela’s own laws and the government’s failure to release a vote count was a “serious breach of electoral principles.”

      Maduro has all the results immediately available to him and all the many recourses of an entire country’s government but won’t release. Meanwhile he’s busy hunting and jailing opposition members who are trying to go individually from polling station to polling station across the country to try and get copies of receipts while the government does everything in their power to prevent their release.

      Boggles my mind anyone could try and defend Maduro.

      Oh and if you want to see what the opposition has been able to publish online so far look here:

      https://supervisiondev2.metabaseapp.com/public/dashboard/6b2f7b3b-16ec-4af6-84c7-69c39ee2139d?tab=16-english

      The only one trying to block transparency here is Maduro.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        172·
        5 months ago

        I’m sure the person you replied to will take the time to retract their statement, right?

    • Moonrise2473English
      324·
      5 months ago

      Exactly! If Maduro is so sure about the numbers, why he’s not going to present them?

    • SeaJ@lemm.eeEnglish
      105·
      5 months ago

      That would certainly track with the exit polling that Edison Research did:

      https://www.edisonresearch.com/edison-research-conducts-exit-poll-in-venezuela/

      Also, the official results are pretty sketch. Maduro got 51.2% exactly. That would be fairly unlikely to get a vote tally to an exact tenth of a decimal but it could totally happen. But Gonzalez got 44.2% exactly as well (the third guy clearly got an exact tenth of a decibel too because basic math). The likelihood of both of them getting that is 1 in 100 million.

        • Syntha@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          71·
          5 months ago

          That’s a graphic produced for public consumption not the official count of the election.

        • SeaJ@lemm.eeEnglish
          51·
          5 months ago

          Wait…a Venezuelan pollster (Hinterlaces) did exit polling in Venezuela…where exit polling is illegal? The editor in chief of the site you are using worked for The Grayzone which is pretty notorious for spreading Russian and Chinese propaganda. They have hired many people from RT and Sputnik.

          • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldEnglish
            67·
            5 months ago

            where exit polling is illegal?

            So, you admit the Edison poll is bullshit propaganda? Nice. Can’t take that back homie, the cat’s outta the bag.

            (Machado with George Bush after the 2002 coup attempt in May 2005)

            • SeaJ@lemm.eeEnglish
              43·
              5 months ago

              Slight difference between a foreign company willing to break Venezuelan laws and the ‘most independent’ Venezuelan pollster, homie. Edison Research has a lot less to lose.

              I do love how you show a picture of Machado and try to link her to the 2002 coup attempt despite the picture being taken 3 years later. Good job. You know what Edmundo Gonzalez was doing in 2002? Working for Chávez.

              The official results were clearly made up. There was a 1 in 100 million chance that the results for Maduro and Gonzalez both landed exactly on a tenth of a percentage point. The official results were extremely unlikely. And there are receipts showing a very different result.

      • Deceptichum@quokk.auEnglish
        1221·
        5 months ago

        They had time to make a cryptic post that could manipulate public sentiment, but couldn’t have lead with the evidence they claim to have? Yeah, nah that sus.

        Either put out the proof or don’t make the claim. Until that point, this person cannot be trusted.