Crisis in Venezuela: Protesters in support of opposition to meet at Miami’s Bayfront Park (2024)

MIAMI – A protest in support of Venezuela’s opposition on Saturday morning at Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami is getting the support of local officials with four areas of free parking.

The protest is set to begin at 10 a.m., and organizers said protesters count on 2,280 parking spaces, some across from Bayside and others near Metromover stations in Downtown.

Maria Teresa Morin, a Vente Venezuela political party coordinator with Vente USA, was at Miami City Hall on Friday upset about the arbitrary arrests and political violence this week in Venezuela

“It’s very hard for me to see all my friends disappearing, tortured,” Morin said.

The weather forecast for Saturday in Miami is not ideal. Marin said the difficulties demonstrators will face at Bayfront Park will pale in comparison to the violent repression the opposition faces in Venezuela.

“This is unbelievable! That in the 21st century we are facing the most incredible act of dictatorship and crimes against humanity,” Marin said.

Marin and other organizers are responding to a call to protest by Vente Venezuela’s María Colina Machado, a leader of Nicolas Maduro’s opposition. She announced on X on Friday night that she plans to be at a demonstration at the Main Avenue of Las Mercedes in Caracas.

“We have to continue moving forward to assert the TRUTH. We have the proof and the world already recognizes it,” Machado wrote in Spanish Friday. “This is a spiritual fight and we go hand in hand with God; HE accompanies this civic movement for family unity, human dignity, and freedom.”

Unable to run against Maduro herself on July 28, Machado supported Edmundo González, a retired diplomat and political newcomer. She supported an informal network of volunteers that collected the data that prompted U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to recognize González as Venezuela’s president-elect.

“The most important thing is that now the world knows what all Venezuelan people were trying to say for the last 25 years,” Marin said referring to the socialists’ quarter-century of power in Venezuela.

The volunteers, Machado referred to as comanditos, relied on the electronic voting machines’ records. The machines printed a receipt that each voter placed in a ballot box. At the end of election day, each of the machines printed a tally sheet.

The opposition reported that 80% of the tally sheets contradicted Venezuela’s electoral officials who are members of the socialist ruling party and remain loyal to Maduro. By Monday morning, both Maduro’s loyalists and the opposition reported different victors.

The opposition had a site with data and the loyalists did not release any precinct-by-precinct results. Maduro later said that’s because they were the victim of a cyber coup. The street protests that followed on Monday and Tuesday were deadly and the Venezuelan police and military arrested hundreds.

In a televised speech, Maduro said 1,200 had been arrested and he wanted 1,000 more arrests. He vowed to fill two prisons and implement forced labor.

During public addresses this week, he and his administration have used terms such as “terrorists,” “traitors,” and “fascists,” to dehumanize the opposition.

Before the election, Maduro warned of bloodshed. After the election, he called for his supporters to enforce respect “by force” at the neighborhood level all around the country — and for Machado and González to be sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Amid the repression and Maduro’s control of the police and the military in Venezuela, Machado published an opinion in the Wall Street Journal and released a video calling for peaceful demonstrations.

González used X on Friday to raise awareness about the arbitrary detention of Freddy Superlano, who campaigned for the opposition and vanished.

“He should be released immediately,” González wrote in Spanish. “Working for democratic change is not a crime, we demand an end to persecution and intimidation. The truth is the path to peace.”

Related stories Friday

• Venezuela’s opposition secured over 80% of crucial vote tally sheets. Here’s how they did it.

• Masked assailants ransack Venezuela opposition’s headquarters as post-election tensions mount

• Justice First opposition party reports more arbitrary detentions

Miami protest: Parking Saturday

• Public Parking Lot 19 along Biscayne Boulevard, near Northeast Fifth Street.

• College Station Parking Garage, at 190 NE 3 St.

• Miami Parking Authority Knight Center Garage, at 100 SE 2nd St.

• Courthouse Center Garage, at 40 NW 3 St.