Thousands pack Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami, rallying for Venezuela's freedom
MIAMI — Venezuelans around the world are protesting their country's national election results, which claimed President Nicolas Maduro the winner last Sunday.
Protests continued across the globe on Saturday as several countries declared that Venezuelan opposition Edmundo Gonzalez was the winner. The opposition party went into hiding after Maduro called for their arrests. In Caracas, Venezuela, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado emerged from hiding to join her supporters, calling for Venezuelans to protest in their country and around the region.
Meanwhile, in South Florida, rallygoers chanted freedom.
Victor Salazar is scarred from fighting for it. He suffered serious burns while protesting the Maduro regime in Venezuela in 2017. A gas tank exploded, spewing flames.
"70%of my body under fire and I was almost five months in the hospital," Salazar said.
Ivan Simonovis said he was a police commissioner in Venezuela under Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez. He said he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for defying the government.
"The first nine years. I was in a one-hole," Simonovis said. "And I could only see the sun for 33 days in nine years."
That's why they both fled to Miami and were at a rally for freedom at Bayfront Park.
"The world is watching Venezuela," said Maria Teresa Morin, an organizer.
The country is in a crisis where both Maduro and Gonzalez declared victory in the election last week.
"It's gonna be huge," Morin said. "Not only for Venezuela but not for the whole world to change this model. To free people. Free speech. You can go everywhere and you don't have to beg for food."
Seventeen people have been killed in the protests, many are hoping a new president means a new chapter in the country's history.
"A lot of people in Venezuela have died because they don't have food. They don't have medicine. They don't have a legal system to protect them," Simonovis said.
"We have an incredible opportunity to give to Venezuela to the Venezuelan people. That freedom," Salazar said.
Venezuela's highest court has taken control of certifying the election. Maduro said there would be a revolution if other countries interfered with the certification of the election. If Maduro is unseated, it would be the biggest shift in power in Venezuela in about 25 years.