Vente Venezuela denounces raid on the regional headquarters of the campaign command

The Vente Venezuela (VV) party, led by the opposition María Corina Machado, denounced that what it calls “repressive bodies” of the government of Nicolás Maduro – in reference to security forces – They raided this Thursday “illegally” the headquarters of the presidential campaign command in the state of Apure (west).

The national coordinator of the VV Human Rights Committee, Orlando Moreno, told EFE that agents from the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (Cicpc) are the ones who carried out the “raid.”

On social network X, the VV committee expressed that this is a “new act of intimidation against the political leadership” in that region.

🚨 #Urgent HURRY UNDER HARASSMENT!

At this moment, repressive bodies of the regime illegally RAID the headquarters of the @convzlacomando in Apure.

This represents a new act of intimidation against the political leadership in the entity.

This headquarters has been without operations since…

— Human Rights Vente Venezuela (@VenteDDHH) November 7, 2024

The office had ceased activities due to “the regime’s onslaught” after the presidential elections of July 28, when Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed re-elected president by the National Electoral Council (CNE), a result indicated as fraudulent by the main opposition bloc – the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) -, which insists on the victory of its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.

«We alert the international community of this brutal persecution that has not ceased in the entity. We demand the end of repression and violence in Venezuela,” the committee added.

On October 25, the opposition party Voluntad Popular (VP) – which is part of the PUD – denounced the “murder” of its leader in Apure Edwin Santos, who had been detained, according to the party, by agents of the Bolivarian Service of National Intelligence (Sebin) two days before, while the ruling party denies this statement and insists that he died in a traffic accident.

According to VP, Santos was a “fundamental actor in the victory” in Apure by González Urrutia, who has been exiled in Spain for almost two months.

For her part, Machado described as “heartbreaking” what, for her, was the “murder” of Santos, whom she described as a “good and happy man who loved his land and dedicated himself to fighting for his democracy.”

However, the director of the Cicpc, Douglas Rico, denied the murder accusation and assured that the VP co-founder also died in a traffic accident.

According to the VV Human Rights Committee, there are 165 opposition leaders and activists detained in the country, the vast majority of them collaborators with the PUD, whom it describes as “political prisoners.”