Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told a mass rally in the capital Caracas on Saturday that the regime of President Nicolás Maduro “has never been weaker… It has lost all legitimacy”.
Machado emerged from hiding to tell the rally: “We have never been so strong as today.”
Defying government calls for her arrest, she addressed thousands of her supporters in Caracas from a truck bearing a banner reading “Venezuela has won”, the BBC reports.
Machado went into hiding earlier last week after accusing Maduro of defrauding the opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, of a clear victory in the presidential election.
The president in turn has promised “maximum punishment” for anti-government demonstrators who say his re-election was rigged.
The electoral commission − controlled by Maduro allies − has insisted he won with 52% of last Sunday’s vote, but independent observers have said it lacked transparency.
According to the BBC, the commission has not published the full breakdown of results. The opposition has said its own vote tally shows it won the election by a wide margin. Opinion polls ahead of the election had suggested a clear victory for the challenger.
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