Utah's Venezuelans to gather as part of global demonstrations for González, against Maduro

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SANDY — Two months after contested presidential elections in Venezuela, Utah's expatriate community from the South American nation plans to gather to keep up the push for the world's democracies to recognize Edmundo González as the winner.

Saturday's demonstration at the Salt Lake Community College campus in Sandy is one of many protests planned in more than 400 cities around the world, organized by a coalition, Comando ConVzla, that has been pressing against the regime of President Nicolás Maduro.

Norely Lopez, part of the local arm of the opposition group, Comando ConVzla Utah, said apart from pushing the U.N. General Assembly and the world's democracies to recognize González, the aim of the varied demonstrations is to press Maduro to halt repression in Venezuela against his political foes. They'll also be asking the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands to take steps to punish those behind "crimes against humanity" taking place in Venezuela in the aftermath of the July 28 vote.

The Utah demonstration, one of several in recent weeks organized by the state's Venezuelan community, is to start at 3 p.m. and will be held at the conference center at Salt Lake Community College's Sandy campus at 9750 S. 300 West. While the event is occurring on school grounds, Salt Lake Community College isn't involved in the event.

Lopez said the Sandy demonstration is one of more than 480 planned around the world. The Sandy event is one of 59 planned protests around the United States, according to a website managed by Comando ConVzla.

Among the speakers in Sandy will be local representatives from the Salvadoran, Chilean, Honduran, Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Mexican communities, who will offer words of support to the Venezuelan contingent. "They'll speak and we'll make a prayer for Venezuela and we'll sing the national anthem," Lopez said.

U.S. President Joe Biden and many others around the world have recognized González as the winner of Venezuela's elections. Venezuelan opposition representatives maintain that González won 67% of the vote in last July's voting compared to 30% for Maduro.

Maduro, a socialist who has ruled with an iron fist, has led what critics say is a repressive regime that has severely weakened the oil-rich nation's economy. Some 7.7 million have fled the country under Maduro's leadership and some have said the exodus will continue if he remains in power.