Hundreds of Calgarians participate in global protest to defend Venezuela’s constitution

Members of Calgary's Venezuelan community were at city hall Saturday to highlight ongoing electoral fraud in Venezuela.

They said the protest was in response to the compromised integrity of the July 28 presidential election in Venezuela..

The election was conducted under the Barbados Agreement, a 2023 pact guaranteeing electoral fairness between the government and the opposition.

However, rally organizers said the agreement was breached, which led to significant delays and issues in registering Venezuelans abroad.

When the election results were announced, the National Electoral Council declared Nicolás Maduro the winner with 51.20 per cent of the vote; handing him a third consecutive term.

The same agency said Edmundo Gonzalez received 44.20 per cent of the vote; but the opposition claims Gonzalez won with 67 per cent of the vote.

There are 5.5 million Venezuelans living abroad but only 69, 211 managed to register or update their information.

Organizers had copies of voter registries outlining whose voter information they say Maduro’s side doesn’t want to share.

“They don’t want to show the proof but we all have the proof because it’s a civil right to have it”,  said Sonny Carmona, a member of Calgary’s Venezuelan community.

“María Corina Machado -- who is one of the leaders of the opposition and next to Edmundo Gonzale -- actually created a website where it proves all the acts and all the bulletins that were actually out on the real winner.”

 Anti-government protests have flared up; it’s estimated that between July 28 and August 8, there were 23 deaths; 18 were men under 30 years old and 1,260 people have been detained by security forces loyal to Maduro.

“Currently we have over 100 kids being stopped by political reason just because they wanted to share their right.," said Carj Our people in Venezuela are not currently  able to fight for their own rights without being repercussions of getting killed,(and having Maduro's troops) going into their own homes and taking them away to places that we don’t even know -- they just (do it)  to make them disappear,."

The international community has condemned the results as fraudulent, noting serious irregularities.

Calgary was one of 350 cities around the world that participated in Saturday’s global protest.

About 10,000 people of Venezuelan descent live in Calgary.