Thousands of Venezuelans stage march for end to repression / Photo: © AFP
Thousands of Venezuelans stage march for end to repression
Thousands of Venezuelans demonstrated on Thursday to demand the release of all remaining political prisoners and full freedoms a month after the overthrow of autocratic leader Nicolas Maduro.
"We are not afraid," the demonstrators chanted at the first major opposition rally since Maduro's capture by US forces, creating scenes that would have been unthinkable during his repressive rule.
Elsewhere in Caracas, thousands of people attended a counter-demonstration in support of the post-Maduro government allowed to remain in place by President Donald Trump, who asserts that he in effect controls Venezuela and its oil wealth.
The opposition demonstration called by student organizations came as lawmakers prepared to debate a bill granting amnesty to all political prisoners for alleged offenses over 27 years of socialist rule.
Referring to the slow release of prisoners over the past five weeks, the demonstrators chanted: "Not one or two, but all."
"Amnesty now!" read a banner hanging at the entrance to the Central University of Venezuela, where the demonstrators gathered.
"We spend a lot of time underground, silent in the face of all the repression Venezuela experienced...but today we are rising up and uniting to put forward demands for the country," Dannalice Anza, a 26-year-old geography student, told AFP.
"VENEZUELA WILL BE FREE! Long live our students!," exiled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado wrote on X, alongside a video of a Caracas street thronged with demonstrators, some of whom waved Venezuelan flags.
The administration of Maduro's successor, Delcy Rodriguez, organized a counter-demonstration, which attracted thousands of pro-Maduro demonstrators on Venezuela Youth Day.
(A.Stefanowych--DTZ)
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