The Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, expressed this Friday that the transition to democracy “is urgent” in Venezuela, where on Thursday thousands of workers mobilized to demand an increase in the minimum wage, frozen since 2022.
«Yesterday, in the streets of Caracas, it was demonstrated once again that the transition to democracy is urgent, cannot be postponed. Because in Venezuela there is hunger: our children suffer from cruel malnutrition and our elderly survive with a pension of 130 bolivars per month,” he wrote in
Furthermore, Machado pointed out that in the country “there is a hunger for dignity, justice and freedom,” which, he said, is not calmed or hidden “with cynical advertisements, censorship, lies, threats or tear gas bombs.”
In Caracas, a strong police cordon blocked and dispersed with pepper spray hundreds of workers who were trying to march on Thursday towards Miraflores, the headquarters of the Executive, a day after the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced a salary increase for next May 1 without specifying the amount.
The keys to Madrid
The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will receive the Golden Key from the Madrid City Council during her visit to the Spanish capital next week, Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida announced this Friday.
The Consistory will present this decoration on Friday, April 17 at the Casa de la Villa, the traditional headquarters of the consistory, Almeida informed journalists.
The first mayor assured that it is difficult for the keys to be “in better hands” because Machado is a woman “committed to human rights, to democracy and who has put her life and physical integrity in danger.”
“Madrid wants to reciprocate the efforts of so many Venezuelans, also those who live in Madrid, and pay tribute by handing over the keys to a city committed to democracy and human rights,” said the mayor.
The Venezuelan opposition confirmed last Tuesday that she will be in Spain next week through a video in which, together with former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, she made an invitation to meet on the 18th with Venezuelans living in Spain.
