By Stefano Pozzebon, CNN
(CNN) — They were the self-styled political “commandos” with aspirations of bringing down the authoritarian government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Now, the opposition says, hundreds of its activists and electoral witnesses are fleeing the country amid the fallout from last month’s contested presidential election.
CNN spoke to about half a dozen Venezuelans who have fled their country in the past month, some swapping clothes or hiding between bushes on their way to safety. Many migrated illegally, moving at night, and hiding during the day to avoid being stopped at dozens of checkpoints set up by Venezuelan government forces. Others said they were waved past by officers they believed to be sympathetic to the opposition’s cause. Most asked for their interviews to remain anonymous fearing government forces could go after their loved ones if they realized they had left the country.
“I left my mom, she’s 84… my husband did the same. My mom told me: ‘Be strong my love, everything will be alright; joy will come back to Venezuela, I’ll be here waiting for you. If I’m not here anymore by the time you come, I’ll know at least you are a free person,’” said one woman, who fled the country with her husband and son.
Her transgression in Venezuela? Helping to gather over 1,200 “actas” – the printed voting machine receipts that have become critical to the opposition’s case that the election was stolen by Maduro – the strongman leader who has ruled the country with an iron fist since the death of Hugo Chavez in 2013.
Before the July 28 vote, one independent poll predicted that up to a third of Venezuela’s population would consider leaving the country if Maduro were reelected. Speaking to CNN just a few weeks later from Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and the United States, these political dissidents now may represent a new migration wave, as Venezuelans flee renewed repression at home.
Viviana Save, an opposition organizer from the Andean state of Trujillo, says the repression began for her well before the election. Speaking to CNN from an undisclosed location outside Venezuela, Save said she had been moving from home to home since July 20 out of fear she’d be arrested by government forces.
Save had been helping to oversee thousands of campaign teams called “comanditos” (“little commandos”) to galvanize voters opposed to the continued rule of Maduro. The groups were also organized to collect the actas printed out in each electoral center, in an effort to ensure a transparent election and to allow the opposition to count the votes independently from electoral authorities.
Ahead of the vote, government forces would park in front of her home as an intimidation tactic, Save said. “They would pull up on the other side of the street, a truck from the (intelligence service) SEBIN, or the special forces, with the windows down and the officers wearing balaclavas or skull masks to scare my family.”
Later, after the ballots were cast and Maduro declared victory – a claim that quickly aroused suspicions in the opposition and abroad – she and thousands of other Venezuelans took to the streets. Venezuelan security forces have since detained at least 2,000 opposition sympathizers, government numbers show, with the homes of activists in some neighborhoods of Caracas marked with black Xs. At least 24 civilians and one soldier have been killed in political violence.
Maduro himself ordered the opening of two new jails to accommodate the arrested and dubbed the police campaign to hunt down and detain as many protesters as possible “Operation Knock-Knock,” mimicking the sound of special forces knocking on the doors of opposition activists in the middle of the night to arrest them.
Save was targeted personally as the crackdown widened.
“[Trujillo’s] Governor Gerardo Marquez published a sign with my face stating that I was wanted for terrorism,” she recalled. Save denies that she was involved in terrorism or that she ever called for violence.
When contacted by CNN, attorney general Tarek William Saab said he would look into Save’s case, but has not yet provided answers to our questions.
“I really felt they would get to me, sooner or later,” Save said.
Poking a hole in the official narrative
According to Venezuela’s electoral council, which is controlled by government sympathizers, Maduro won his reelection bid with just over 50% of the vote.
But the country’s opposition coalition, as well as electoral observers from the United Nations and the Carter Center have questioned the council’s numbers. The US, the EU and various other countries and multilateral institutions have also urged Venezuela to release granular data showing the results by polling station.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s opposition has published more than 80% of the actas printed and collected from voting machines across the country, some 25,000 documents in total, thanks to volunteers like those interviewed by CNN.
Though partial, the painstaking documentation appears to show that the opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had in fact defeated Maduro, several experts told CNN.
Yet, the price for disputing the government’s account of the election is high. While the publication of election tallies is admitted by Venezuelan law, the Venezuelan government has accused the opposition of releasing false “actas,” without presenting any proof. Last week, Attorney General Tarek William Saab summoned Gonzalez Urrutia for interrogation accusing him of “usurping” the Electoral Council’s functions.
In addition to widespread arrests, dozens of activists and journalists have said that the Venezuelan government voided their passports to prevent them leaving the country, amid other repressive measures. The Venezuelan passport office didn’t respond to questions from CNN.
Volunteers and electoral witnesses who collected the voting machine tallies have been particularly targeted by the government repression, activists say.
“Everyone who was involved in our effort is in hiding, either here or abroad,” said another opposition source involved in collecting the tallies. “The acta became like kryptonite because it proves the government is lying,” the source said.
Opposition presidential candidate Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado are also in hiding. Maduro has publicly threatened them with detention.
A new life abroad
More than seven million Venezuelans have left their country since Maduro came to power in 2013, according to the United Nations. Experts fear hundreds of thousands more could follow them in the upcoming months.
The critical moment for Save took place on Friday August 2, five days after the election, she says. Moving every day for fear of arrest, she was driving in a rural area when her car broke down. Shortly after, a police patrol showed up on a motorcycle.
Save told CNN she hid behind a shack while bystanders talked to the police to earn time. She then trekked up a hill and spent several hours hiding among banana trees.
“I really felt that was my day, I was hiding there, and I was sure they would get me and take me to the Helicoide,” Save told CNN, pointing to the maximum-security prison in Caracas where the Maduro government keeps dozens of dissenters.
Several days later, she left the country in disguise.
“At some point I had to jump on a motorcycle and wear flip flops because they wanted me to look like a local driving back home, but thank God it worked out, I am out,” she told CNN.
Another dissidenttold CNN they left their home by motorcycle and drove during the night, while hiding and resting during the day, after being tipped off that security forces planned to arrest them.
“When they told me the government was coming for me, I just took off. I didn’t pack anything: four days on the road with a single pair of underpants,” they told CNN, asking to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation against their family, who stayed behind in Venezuela.
In recent years, some countries in the Americas have applied restrictions to Venezuelan travelers to stem migration flows. Most of the activists cited in this article told CNN they intended to return to Venezuela as soon as possible and did not aim to apply for asylum abroad.
Save is thinking of trying to make her way to the United States, where a growing number of exiled opposition politicians currently reside. But that her real hope is to return to Trujillo, where she believes that most people stand with her – even the soldiers tasked with enforcing Maduro’s rule.
“The government never imagined we could organize all our people for this. They ordered the military not to allow our witnesses to take the actas, but if we got 92% of them it means those orders were not obeyed,” she said. “The people are with us.”
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