Venezuela’s opposition calls on armed forces to ditch support for Maduro in post-election crisis

CARACAS, Venezuela (news agencies) — Venezuela’s opposition leaders are calling on the country’s armed forces to abandon their support of President Nicolás Maduro and stop repressing demonstrators who have come out in force to dispute the leader’s claim he prevailed in last Sunday’s election.

The armed forces are traditionally the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela and have been key to Maduro’s grip on power ever since he took over the so-called Bolivarian revolution in 2013 from his mentor, the late Hugo Chávez.

So far, they’ve shown no signs of ditching Maduro even in the face of credible evidence presented by the opposition that it trounced the self-proclaimed socialist at the polls by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

In a message posted Monday on social media, Edmundo González — who the U.S. and a half dozen countries have recognized as the victor — and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on rank and file members of the security forces to rethink their loyalty.

“We appeal to the conscience of the military and police to put themselves on the side of the people and their families,” the two wrote in a long message.

“We won this election without any doubt. It was an electoral avalanche,” the two continued. “Now it’s up to all of us to respect the voice of the people.”

Authorities have declared Maduro the victor in last Sunday’s election but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. The opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide showing it won.

Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents and at a rally in Caracas he pledged to detain more people and send them to prison. The post-electoral uprising has also claimed at least 11 deaths, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based human rights group.

González and Machado in their missive called on Venezuelans with family members serving in the security forces to urge their loved ones not to attack protesters and obey illegal orders. It said it would offer “guarantees” to soldiers who follow the constitution even while promising there would be no impunity for those behind abuses and following illegal orders.

Both González, a former diplomat, and Machado — who was barred by the government from running — have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro and his cadres have threatened to lock them both up.