The Venezuelan opposition has denounced the attempted kidnapping of one of its volunteers on election day on July 28, at the hands of “armed individuals” who surrounded his home during the demonstrations organized this Saturday to protest the alleged fraud in the elections.

“Unidentified individuals are trying to kidnap David Gelder, a member of our national electoral team,” the opposition party Vente Venezuela reported in a post on its social media account X, adding that some residents of the area “have mobilized to prevent it.”

The Human Rights Committee of the party has denounced “the siege” against Gelder, indicating that the aforementioned “unidentified individuals” have arrived at the place “on board white vans” and have entered his building “looking for him and staying there to arrest him.”

Former opposition candidate María Corina Machado has echoed the complaint through the same platform, with a message in which she has urged the residents of La Candelaria to “go quickly” to the address of the incident to protect that “boy who worked voluntarily to defend (their) votes on June 28.” “We have to protect each other and continue,” she said.

Vente Venezuela later warned through the platform that, at around 10:44 p.m. (local time), “a group of between six and eight people dressed in black and hooded entered (their) colleague’s building,” threatening to kidnap him.

For its part, the party’s Human Rights Committee has spoken of ten officials from the Venezuelan General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) who were trying to “force their way into David Gelder’s home” and have held “the regime responsible for anything that might happen to him.”

Venezuela is in the midst of a climate of protests by both the government and the opposition following the presidential elections held last Sunday.

On the one hand, Machado has called for a nationwide mobilization this Saturday, with special attention to the capital, Caracas, to reject the results of the elections and claim the victory of her candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia. Meanwhile, the forces close to Maduro have also called for a Great National March for Peace this Saturday to support the victory of the president.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) has declared Maduro’s victory with 51.95 percent of the votes compared to 43.18 percent for Gonzalez’s candidacy.

Once the first results were known on Monday, the opposition quickly came forward to claim their victory – which they claim they achieved with more than 70 percent of the votes – and demand a recount of the votes supported at an international level.