CARACAS, October 23 (Aalimi Nation) – Thousands of Venezuelans marched in several cities on Thursday to demand free elections, in what was described as the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years. The Venezuela protest was called by Vente Venezuela, the movement led by opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been living outside the country for close to a year.
Marches across the country
Demonstrators gathered in the capital, Caracas, and in Valencia, Maracay, San Cristóbal and Maracaibo. Turnout was in the thousands overall and in the hundreds in Maracay. In many smaller towns, participants dispersed before nightfall.
Protesters called for free elections, wider political change and the release of prisoners they say are held for political reasons. Leosmary Hernández, an 18-year-old cosmetology student in Maracay, said: "Seeing this makes me happy because I know change is possible." She added that she was "even less afraid today" than at an earlier protest.
Security forces kept a minimal presence at protest sites. Some reports of detentions could not be confirmed, and the main accounts cited no arrests.
Rival march in Caracas
The ruling Socialist Party called its own march from Plaza Venezuela, the same point where the opposition had planned to gather, to a location near the presidential palace. The party presented it as a Breast Cancer Awareness Month event. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who has close ties to the security services, was shown on state television at the government rally. The opposition then shifted its protest to a nearby site.
The government has repeatedly denied holding political prisoners and says its amnesty law is generous. The legal rights group Foro Penal says more than 320 political prisoners remain.
The election question
US President Donald Trump and acting President Delcy Rodríguez have both said elections will be held, but neither has set a date for a legislative or a presidential vote. Machado has said the vote must take place by July 2027. Trump said last month that it was too soon to consider elections. María Débora Marín, a protester in Valencia, said she did not want to wait that long.
Separate talks backed by the United States between one faction of the opposition and the interim government aim to overhaul the country's top court and electoral council before any future ballot. Machado's movement is not part of those talks, although she has said she will not obstruct them. The US State Department welcomed the end of a third round of talks and said the process "continues to strengthen democratic institutions." Its spokesman, Tommy Pigott, urged the immediate release of all political prisoners.
Background
The Socialist movement has governed Venezuela since 1999, first under Hugo Chávez and then Nicolás Maduro. Maduro was captured by US forces in a military raid in January, and Rodríguez, his former vice president, has led an interim government since then. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, face drug and torture charges in the United States and have pleaded not guilty.
The 2024 presidential election remains contested. Opposition tallies showed its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, winning, but the government never released full counts and the courts and electoral institutions backed Maduro.
