Perhaps the most significant event so far was the announcement made on Monday by four opposition mayors, who declared themselves independent from any political party and expressed their support for the ruling party candidate, Nicolás Maduro, who is running for reelection for his third consecutive term.

At a meeting convened by the National Command of the Venezuela Our 21st Century Campaign, at the Meliá Caracas Hotel, the mayors, two of them present at the meeting, issued a statement in which they announced their “free and responsible decision” to support the head of State.

The officials decided “to take a step forward for the protection of the population who trusted our proposal to govern the destinies,” the mayors noted.

Elected in 2021, the mayors who signed the statement are Juan Carlos Zamora, from Tinaco municipality, in the state of Cojedes (northwest); Sulme Avila, from Juan Germán Roscio, San Juan de los Morros, Guárico; Adrián Azuaje, from Obispos, Barinas state (north); and Pedro Antonio Abreu, Rojas municipality, also of Barinas.

According to international media and without confirmation, Pedro Antonio Rojas categorically denied later having taken this step and affirmed that he supports the candidacy of the opposition presidential candidate from the Unitary Democratic Platform, Edmundo Gonzalez.

“We denounce, and reject, any attempt to return to useless diatribe and violence as an instrument to obtain political and power positions,” they stressed in the text.

The mayors acknowledged that much damage was done by violence, with families mourning and plunged into sadness, due to the “devious calculations of a few who move away from our commitment to attend to our voters within the framework of the Constitution.”

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