Crisis in Venezuela: Maduro reports 1,200 arrests during protests, warns about 1,000 more

During a televised speech on Thursday night in Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro announced that law enforcement personnel had arrested 1,200 people and they were working to arrest 1,000 more.

Maduro said “criminals” had targeted hospitals, metro stations, police stations, residences, and storage for the food distribution program, CLAP, a network he created in 2016 and the U.S. reported was fraudulent.

“I am going to put them all in maximum security prisons in Tocorón so that they pay for their crimes before the people,” Maduro said in Spanish about the prison that the Tren de Aragua gang had controlled.

Maduro said the Tocuyito prison was also ready for the “fascist criminals.” He was referring to the demonstrations, protests, vandalism, and riots that followed Monday after his socialist party loyalists and his opposition reported conflicting results of the Sunday election.

“The people have to get respect by force,” Maduro said during his 20-minute speech.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab reported that 1,062 were in custody Wednesday and said Thursday none of them were peaceful protesters, and some weren’t voters. ForoPenal, a nongovernmental organization, was working to verify the claim and reported there were records of 11 dead, 74 minors among the 711 detained, and defendants accused of terrorism facing charges of treason, conspiracy to commit crimes, and incitement to hate.

Pro Vea, a nongovernmental organization, reported that 19 protesters were killed, and the courts and corrections were not allowing private defense attorneys or family visits after the arbitrary detentions.

Officials in Maracaibo’s municipality of San Francisco identified one of the victims killed during a protest as 15-year-old Isaias Fuenmayor. Through tears, his relatives told reporters he was shot.

Maduro’s audience, members of the CLAP network, danced to merengue and later cheered and chanted. He also said he was working to “consolidate peace” in a “perfect union” between the police and the military nationwide.

Maduro also said Caryslia Rodríguez, who is the president of Venezuela’s Supreme Court, was also the president of the electoral chamber. He said he tasked the courts to “establish the truth” about the election results.

Maduro said there was a “digital coup” related to the elections and went on to say he had extraordinary abilities and that during his campaign he had warned of the risk “of fascist criminals” who were going to “kill” the people.

“I have powers, I see beyond,” Maduro said adding, “I see someone’s eyes and I know everything they are thinking.”

Maduro went on to quote the Bible to support his claim of the “fascist threat” and said his administration had defeated the first phase of the “criminal” coup.

“We are going after them,” Maduro said. Later quoting Ernesto “Che” Guevara, “Ever onward to victory!”

There were warnings on social media Wednesday that Maduro’s administration had launched “a harsh attack” to criminalize the work of the witnesses and polling station members who helped to monitor the presidential elections on July 28.

Journalists and politicians vanished. The National Union of Press Workers of Venezuela reported that among the journalists who were detained while covering the protests were Paúl León, a photojournalist on Tuesday in Varela; and Yousner Alvarado, a reporter on Monday in Barinas.

Freddy Superlano, a Venezuelan politician who campaigned for the opposition, vanished. Through tears, Superlano’s wife, Aura Silva, said Wednesday night the government had not released any information about him or two cousins. She asked for prayers for all of the victims of the “perverse dictatorship.”

Ricardo Estevez, who campaigned for the opposition, also vanished. His son Javier Estevez released a surveillance video he said shows his arbitrary detention on Tuesday morning. He and his mother said they have toured jails and prisons asking for information to no avail.

After several students of the Central University of Venezuela vanished — including Armando Solís, Rafael Sivira, Anthony Granadillo, Keiver Rincón, and María Méndez — the public institution in Caracas released a statement condemning the government’s response to dissent.

“The Venezuelan government has resorted to the deceptive application of criminal norms to persecute, for political reasons, the population that demands respect for its electoral will,” Juan Carlos Apitz, a dean, wrote adding, that this included “arbitrary arrests, executions, raids, and murders by police and military forces.”

Francisco Bueno told AFP in Valencia that security forces “were shooting, and they weren’t shooting with pellets but with real bullets” and shot his cousin Victor Bustos, 35, a father of three, in the chest during a peaceful protest on Tuesday.

In response to the repression, María Corina Machado published “I can prove Maduro got trounced,’ an opinion on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, and wrote she could be captured just for writing it, her team was in hiding, and the volunteers who “protected the voter receipts with their lives” were hunted.

“Organically, communities organized into more than 60,000 comanditos, small campaign units set up around kitchen tables all around the country. More than one million volunteers took on specific roles to prepare for the election, training to defend every single vote that would be cast that day,” she wrote.

Machado declared the data collected showed Edmundo Gonzalez had beaten Maduro. She reported that by Wednesday, Maduro’s security forces had killed at least 20 Venezuelans, imprisoned more than 1,000, and forced 11 disappearances during protests.

Meanwhile, Saab said 80 members of law enforcement were injured during the protests, and he described the protesters as drug users, convicted felons, demented, psychopaths, and bandits who engaged in incitement to hate and terrorism on Monday and Tuesday.

“I predict high sentences of years in prison,” Saab said.

Saab also said the electoral volunteers were members of an organization with foreign funding and accused the opposition of manipulating and brainwashing young people and engaging in “non-conventional warfare.” He also said members of “the so-called comanditos” had engaged in criminal behavior.

In a pre-recorded video distributed on social media, Machado later called for a peaceful family-friend demonstration involving children and grandparents on Saturday and for the display of Venezuelan flags in honor of the fallen.

“We are going to pay tribute to each of those heroes for standing up for the truth,” Machado said.

Late Friday night, Gonzalez released a statement on X in Spanish.

“I remain firm on the side of the people. I will never leave you alone, and I will always defend your will! Long live Venezuela,” Gonzalez wrote. “Glory to the brave people.”

Related video on YouTube (TeleSUR English)

Related video on X (Spanish)

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