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We need the international community and international justice to act,” said the opposition leader.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Wednesday urged the international community to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to resign.
Machado has been living in hiding in his country since August, after denouncing fraud in the July presidential elections.
Maduro claimed to have won the election, but the opposition insists that its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia – currently exiled in Spain – was the one who won by a large majority.
Following the news of Maduro’s re-election, protests broke out that left 27 dead and at least 2,400 detained on charges of “terrorism.”
“We need the international community and international justice to act” and hold Maduro and other Venezuelan officials accountable, Machado said in English, addressing a conference in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
Machado delivered this message two days after winning the Václav Havel Prize from the Council of Europe , becoming the first Latin American to receive this award that recognises actions in defence of human rights.
“We need to let them know that they will be held accountable,” he said.
Machado added that the world must continue to recognize Urrutia as the president-elect and help cut off “illicit financial resources” to Maduro.
“These come from drug trafficking . They come from illegal mining and gold smuggling and even human trafficking ,” he said, noting that “European countries can do a lot to help stop these flows immediately.”
The opposition leader added that Western powers should give priority to Venezuela since “this tragedy goes far beyond [its] borders.”
“The regime is destabilizing the entire region,” Machado said, adding that it is opening the door for countries such as Russia, Iran, Cuba and Syria to exert influence in Latin America.
“Maduro has never been as weak and isolated as he is now and we need to put more pressure on him because this is the opportunity we have been fighting for for two and a half decades,” he added.
