CARACAS – Venezuela’s government and opposition closed the official presidential campaign season Thursday with demonstrations that drew thousands of people to the streets of the capital.
The events three days before the highly anticipated election on Sunday encapsulated the massive disparities between the top contenders, including their resources.
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President Nicolás Maduro, who is seeking a third term, appeared before supporters on a massive stage set up on one of the city’s main roads and rallied attendees with musical intermissions and dances throughout his speech. He told the crowd, part of it transported to Caracas on state-owned buses, his opponents are promoters of violence and described himself as a man of peace.
“Who of the 10 candidates guarantees peace and stability?” Maduro asked the crowd. Yet it was he who in recent days spoke of a possible post-election “bloodbath.”
Meanwhile, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who is representing the Unitary Platform coalition, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gathered far fewer supporters. González and Machado moved through the city standing atop a platform affixed to a truck until they reached a middle-class district of the capital.
Lack of funding and government repression against Machado and any service provider who may volunteer or enter a contract with the campaign has affected their ability to set up proper stages, including Thursday when their sound system was not powerful enough to allow all supporters to listen.
State television transmitted live the entirety of Maduro’s rally and ignored the opposition’s event.
Sunday's election is giving the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela its toughest electoral test in decades.
Maduro is as unpopular as ever among many voters, who blame him for the complex crisis that has affected them for more than 11 years. At the same time, after years of boycotting elections and party divisions, the main opposition parties have come together to support a single candidate, González.