Opposition, regime backers to hold rival protests in Venezuela

CARACAS: Venezuela’s opposition and regime supporters will vie for the streets of Caracas Saturday in rival demonstrations amid a political crisis sparked by the election victory claimed by strongman Nicolas Maduro but widely rejected at home and abroad.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has called demonstrations for more than 300 cities in Venezuela and abroad, what she called a “Protest for the Truth.”

On Friday, she urged supporters to “keep up the fight.”

Anti-Maduro protests have claimed 25 lives so far, with nearly 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested since the July 28 vote that both the president and opposition say they had won.

Machado, who had her presidential candidacy blocked by institutions loyal to Maduro, will be at the Caracas march despite having been largely in hiding since election day.

Maduro had called for Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who replaced her on the ballot, to be arrested. He accuses them of seeking to foment a “coup d’etat.”