![Venezuela protests against Maduro’s reelection continue](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
Protests against President Nicolás Maduro continued on Wednesday, a month after the disputed presidential election of July 28.
Opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González initiated protests under “Acta Mata Sentencia,” which translates to “Vote record kills sentence.” Protests against Maduro’s reelection were not only held throughout Venezuela but also in various cities worldwide, including Osaka, Amsterdam, Madrid, New York, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile and Santo Domingo. All protests shared the idea that the voting polls demonstrate the victory of Edmundo González as president of Venezuela, contrary to the results delivered by official organs of the government.
These protests took place in an unsettling environment. González has remained hidden since the elections fearing arrest, as he is summoned for a second time for questioning by Venezuela’s prosecutors. Besides this, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a permanent commission of the Organization of American States (OAS), on Wednesday confirmed it had documented various acts of “state terrorism” in Venezuela since the elections. President of the commission Roberta Clarke confirmed cases of “arbitrary use of force and arbitrary detentions, persecutions and harassment, censorship and restrictions to freedom of expression, association and reunion, posing obstacles to the protection of human rights”.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado stated during one of the protests that the actions of the Venezuelan government constituted “the most brutal repressive campaigns in the history of Venezuela.” She also referred to the “more than 150 children imprisoned by the government.” This had also been an important point of concern for the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which urged Venezuela to end its acts of repression and comply with international child protection obligations.
Despite this, protests continued against the results of the elections as claims for “freedom” took the streets in the past few days.