Venezuela Opposition Plans 23-State Protest to Bring Machado Home

(MENAFN) Venezuela’s main opposition party, Vente Venezuela, called a nationwide mobilization for Oct. 22, demanding safe passage for its leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado to return home, the party announced Monday.

Addressing a press conference in Caracas, national party leader Carlos Fernandez said the demonstrations will cover all 23 states and bring together civil society, trade unions, youth groups and opposition parties.

“On Oct. 22, mothers, teachers, young people who want a prosperous future, all social sectors, the Plataforma Unitaria and political parties across the spectrum will take to the streets,” Fernandez said. “Set aside your fears. Maria Corina is coming to unite Venezuela and accelerate the transition.”

The opposition laid out three further demands behind the street action.

First, it wants a firm date for presidential elections, under the slogan “Election Day is Liberation Day!” Vente Venezuela backed a proposal first made by US Congressman Bernie Moreno to hold the vote on July 24, 2027, a timeline Machado has publicly supported.

Second, the party demands the immediate, unconditional release of all detained opposition activists and political dissidents.

“Enough of keeping our brothers and sisters behind bars! Their families cannot take it anymore,” Fernandez emphasized.

Third, it is calling for full political rights and an end to the administrative disqualifications imposed on opposition leaders.

Fernandez cast the Oct. 22 action as the “spearhead for peaceful mobilization” at a time of deepening socio-economic hardship and infrastructure breakdowns across the country.

“Venezuela is going through one of the hardest times in its history,” he said. “Not only do we face persecution, torture and exile, but today we are dealing with a country in darkness, without water, and where our people are starving. We are living through it every single day.”

The call to protest comes as the government and a sector of the opposition hold a third round of political transition talks. The negotiations resumed soon after Washington lifted sanctions on Jorge Rodriguez, the administration’s chief negotiator and the brother of interim President Delcy Rodriguez.

Lifting political bans remains a central item on the agenda, following Machado’s formal demand for the immediate removal of the administrative disqualification imposed on her in 2023, which kept her off the ballot in previous presidential election cycles.

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