MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Machado says Maduro committed a coup d'état

“Maduro violated the Constitution flanked by the dictators of Cuba and Nicaragua,” Machado underlined in a video posted on social networks

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Nicolás Maduro carried out a coup d'état by swearing in as President on Friday instead of Edmundo González Urrrutia who failed to return to Caracas for the occasion as he had promised.

Maduro's inauguration for a third six-year term represented “the violation of the National Constitution,” Machado argued. The Bolivarian regime “decided to cross the red line,” she added. Maduro was declared the winner of the apparently fraudulent July 28, 2024, elections, at which González Urrutia claimed to have prevailed, as corroborated by independent observers.

In Machado's view, Maduro wore the presidential sash as a shackle,“ meaning he will be prosecuted when the time comes. However, she and González Urrutia agreed Friday was not the best moment for the retired diplomat's rentrée from his exile.

Regarding her case, Machado said violent Chavista groups chased her firing shots and forcing her to record a video as proof of life after Thursday's incidents when she was reported to have been arrested. ”It took me several hours to get away from the area and take shelter,“ he said. Machado, who has been living in hiding since after the elections, said she still had ”severe pain and bruises in various parts of my body“ from Thursday's incidents.

”It is evident that what happened to me yesterday demonstrates the deep contradictions within the regime. Its erratic performance is yet another demonstration of how [Maduro's regime] is divided inside,“ Machado argued Friday.

She also explained in a video released through social networks that it was not deemed convenient for González Urrutia to enter Venezuela on Friday because ”his integrity is fundamental.“ Bolivarian authorities had pledged to arrest him the minute he set foot in the country.

”I have asked him not to do so because his integrity is fundamental for the final defeat of the regime and the transition to democracy which is very close,“ Machado said ”about our president-elect.“

”Edmundo will come to Venezuela to be sworn in as constitutional president of Venezuela at the right time when the conditions are right,“ she went on. ”In its delirious paranoia, the regime has not only closed Venezuela's airspace but has activated the entire air defense system,” she also explained.