Venezuela's Attorney General denounces sabotage actions on election day
The Attorney General of Venezuela, William Saab, denounced the recent attacks against the Venezuelan people during the presidential elections and, at the same time, congratulated all of Venezuela for the results of these elections.teleSUR
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00:00We go live with the statements of the Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab.
00:03After a long day, in which from the central room of this prosecutor's office here in Caracas,
00:21in front of the Carabobos Park, and in front of all the over 1,000 officials led by me,
00:41we could say that after this historical event, which has had a great impact on the world
00:51and nationwide, in which the first thing I want to say is to greet and congratulate and
01:00applaud the dedication of the Venezuelan people to conduct these elections in a peaceful and
01:10enthusiastic way, without falling into provocations and violent calls of fake leaders who have
01:20sold the country, consequently, as of the arrival in office of President Hugo Chavez.
01:34What they have offered is war, violence, bloodshed, and tears, sanctions, coup d'etats,
01:43invasions, sacrifices, lots of sacrifices, and everything of it has been offered by these
01:55fake leaders, just achieving bloodshed in different times in the coup d'etat on April 11,
02:07which could have ended up with the assassination of President Hugo Chavez in the oil stoppage on
02:1521 and 22, 2001 and 2002, they were defeated. And there was coming elections of governors,
02:28and afterwards, the re-election of President Hugo Chavez in 2006, and the approval of the
02:37constitutional amendment, and all that led to an era of intense calm and stability,
02:46in which there were no sanctions against Venezuela. And so, some people speak about
02:56the positivity of that era. And unfortunately, the pass away of President Chavez accelerated
03:08all the aforementioned in brutal terms. We have counted up, and we have provided several briefings
03:20of how they have searched to make better this hybrid war that was launched 20 years ago,
03:32the use of international spokepersons to generate hatred. It's impressive how their voices,
03:42of course, some spokespersons, they have called to bloodshed, to attacks since yesterday. And
03:53today, the people who have seen, who have walked on the streets, on their way to their jobs,
04:05they have seen that today, Caracas is at peace, calm, and all Venezuela is at peace. And it does
04:15deserve a strong applaud, because it reveals the will, the absolute willingness of the Venezuelan
04:24people and Venezuela for preserving the sacred asset that they have, peace. Because all Venezuelans
04:37went to vote yesterday for peace and stability, and that was what happened. That's the first thing
04:44we have to say. These elections arrived amid the worst in 2014. In 2019, we've got the imposition
05:01of a puppet. You recall the self-proclaimed usurper of power, tyrant, Guaido. And you see
05:14that these tyrants appear calling to vote by the far right. And the head of the cañonazo in April,
05:28which is completely old, he called to vote for the Nazis. And likewise, all the people who were
05:41along with him, this coup attempt on assassination, and the triggering of the civil war in April,
05:55and afterwards, the maritime incursion, mercenary incursion, that allegedly cost 200 million with
06:11the civil court. And these coup mongers, they gave him 1%. They were about to, well, we have
06:24to come here amid over 1,000 sanctions, coercive sanctions, violating the human rights, just to
06:35disrupt elections. They don't care about elections. And I announced it and denounced it last year,
06:44that the mockery theater of primary elections, and I have evidence there, Jesus Maria Casal said
06:57there weren't more than 300,000 people. But they just altered the act's documents, and they said
07:12weren't at the polling stations. And the way of counting up these documents, in which in a
07:27rudimentary box, they counted up the alleged ballots. And again, they wanted to, and I want
07:37to say this, they intended to repeat the mockery theater of a poorish, a lame-ish primaries, in
07:51which documents were altered. They said that in a warehouse, or in a lady's house, and we saw how
08:02this was a lie, and it served as an alibi, as Jesus Maria Casal said to me, because they had,
08:15in the National Commission, a private organization. And the leader, the owner of this, was the one
08:30who had called to a bloodshed. So, she said, be quiet, we won't go out from the polling stations.
08:45And she said that she will sweep all workers and all leaders, because allegedly they were serving
09:01the Venezuelan state. But we have every element of conviction, we have every element that the
09:14plan wasn't that. And particularly from this, in December 2023, and in this month of 2024,
09:22there were violence, a violence wave from her to disrupt these elections in Miami and other places.
09:36They just forecasted that elections weren't going to happen. And I want to congratulate
09:45the people of Venezuela that were able to combat all these attempts. So, it has been the electoral
09:56referee, the electoral council, as I warned you several times, that was the authority for saying
10:04who was the winner. I am going to talk about the attempt of attacking the electoral system of data.
10:20They had that main target, to create chaos, and to think that these were the mockery primary
10:32elections in which 300 people attended to those allegedly polling stations, and appeared at least
10:47three million people, because they burned all documents. And so, they estimated that in Paraguay,
10:57a John Doe won 5,000 ballots, and the presidential candidate just got 0.1
11:14ballot. And so, they believe this could reach some international outlet in which they use it
11:24for getting recognition. And I am going to say it loud and clear now, pay attention,
11:33this is the main theme. And I am going to talk and to refer to new cases, which I have to point out,
11:41because despite that these were isolated, I have to reveal it, because it characterizes
11:52these peoples who pretend, who intended to harm the elections. And effectively, indeed,
12:01the only electoral referee who pronounced the verdict, reaffirmed that with over 50%
12:16of the votes, the president-elect of the republic was Nicolás Maduro.
12:25So, he achieved that based on what the constitutional law established.
12:34And it is not worthy to mention that the electoral council was good for
12:45those far-right opponents submitted. It was excellent for it to appear a face that
12:58a person who didn't have a campaign, how they look at
13:15him for making him to be quiet. He is very nervous, and it is impressive to see this.
13:25But the advertisements of the candidate in which you see his face and his name, it was
13:45good for them to make campaigns nationwide. It was good the electoral council for that,
14:01but when they pronounce the tally, the electoral council is bad, and they are against the
14:14governmental powers. And so, the prosecutor's office, we warned that we're not going to put up
14:25any crime, and that's why I want to read this communique. The prosecutor's office officers
14:34greet the Venezuelan people for its demonstration of civilism, his democratic
14:43and peaceful vocation. The national electoral council as constitutional entity in charge of the
14:53carrying out of the electoral events has issued the official results and proclaim as winner the
15:01candidate Nicolás Maduro-Morales, current president and candidate for the elections.
15:06In front of this example of the Venezuelan people, we reject the attempts of interference and the
15:16fearful statements conducted by some few Latin American governments that have intended to
15:25lead to the Venezuelan democracy in a shameful revision of the Lima group that
15:37vanishes without glory of the international arena. While the presidents that made up that group are
15:52today rejected, yesterday the people decided and celebrated peace, initiating a new cycle in
16:02Venezuela. However, there were attempts to sabotage the electoral process, and during the electoral day
16:11there was detected an informatic and computing attack, a hacking against the electoral council.
16:26And so that's why we have opened an investigation and we have appointed the prosecutors
16:34and they are in charge of inquiring into this crime. And we also have seen concern
16:50over the disregard of the result for a radical sector with a long history record of insurrection.
17:00In defense of peace, we inform that our institution will monitor any act that intends
17:06to initiate an escalation of violence. We warn that the violent acts and those violent acts and
17:16calls to disregard official results could be crimes against public instigation. Article 285
17:27of the penal code with a sentence of three to six years of prison. Obstruction of public roots,
17:39article 357 with a sentence to six to seven years of prison. Instigation to hate,
17:48article 20 of the special law against hate with a sentence to 10 to 20 years.
17:55Resistance to authority, article 218 penal code with a sentence of one month to two years
18:04in jail. So, there are one or two suspects who are just committing this crime.
18:15So, we are in favor of development in peace in the search of consensus that allow us to
18:27overcome the serious damages of these aggressions, of these sanctions that have led to,
18:39also to thefts, and we call the population to not be used in these destabilizing
18:48groups that search for chaos and suffering of the majority of our people. We congratulate
18:58the President Nicolás Maduro Móderos for their triumph, for their work of the Republic Plan,
19:08and we congratulate the Electoral Council for arranging an exemplary elections Caracas,
19:17July 29, 2024. Then, after I said this, I want to provide some developments of the investigation.
19:30I want to add regarding the hacking attack that this Prosecutor's Office has some advancements,
19:45and we know the ones involved in these crimes. According to the information that we have
19:56collected, the attack has been conducted from Macedonia, from the north of Macedonia,
20:07and they have intended to manipulate data, but fortunately, we stopped this. We stopped
20:21black hat hackers, but however, they achieved to slow down
20:29the process of reading the final bulletin regarding the results, which numbers
20:46had been irreversible. They didn't want to slow down, but alter the results of elections.
20:55The results of the electoral automated system, we have located the main suspect of this action.
21:06According to the information classified, to the classified information we received,
21:12such criminal is Lester Toledo,
21:20who has been rejected and repudiated from this country, and it is a wanted subject here.
21:30Along with him, there is another wanted subject who launched
21:37the worst discrediting wars that he said there weren't going to have elections yesterday.
21:59I am referring to Leopoldo Lopez, and obviously,
22:06the lady Maria Corina Machado is involved in this attempt of hacking,
22:16and I am denouncing these actions as Attorney General of the Republic.
22:21Hence, the appointed prosecutors are collecting all data to
22:36give you more evidence afterwards, and they wanted to alter the results of the electoral
22:44automated system, and I said previously, at the beginning, that we shouldn't be surprised
22:55of what they tried to do, because in December, from October to December, they launched
23:03a despicable preamble, and unfortunately, we have evidence of how they burned down
23:22documents, how they were in a warehouse with pencils, because they don't have a single
23:29computer machine, and they weren't interested that the electoral council monitor that process.
23:38They weren't interested in that, and let's recall that those primaries were conducted without any
23:47verifying mechanism with any records of participation. That's the referral that
23:54they wanted to repeat here. How come they are thinking that Venezuela is under the developing
24:07country? We have over thousands of international observers in this process, and then
24:18the same Casal and his team said that there were less than 300,000 people participated.
24:32However, this unnamed person who demonstrated so much hate against the government,
24:47who used an elderly with poor health condition to make him some stroke. She didn't care.
25:05Some people have to carry him with chairs. That's acting with sadism. She has a lot of ambition
25:15of power. So, then that referral is very important, because those results were denounced as
25:28fake by the opposition at the national assembly. Even a member of the technical commission of
25:41primaries, Nelson, he denounced publicly that the figures offered by the national commission of
25:48primaries were altered and were fake. I have to remember that the electoral council presented
25:57the proposal of assistance to those primaries that had the electoral machinery, but that's why
26:13we see the same person who executed that fraud primaries, and so they described these elections
26:22as sham, and they even said it at the end of 2023 and during this whole 2024. If these are
26:34sham elections, why did you submit in these elections? Because if I know there's a fraud
26:46in a competition, I just simply withdraw. I just simply resign. They didn't resign. They were
26:57holding their campaign across the country, and there was no incident to regret. But then I ask
27:05again, if it was the Venezuelan state good for that to happen, and then the electoral referee
27:15that you respect as you submit to this election, it was good, but now it is bad because you lose.
27:28That doesn't exist. When you win an election, that elections are valid, but if you lose,
27:38so it was fraud. For example, there are governors that were elected in opposing
27:47parties to the states. They were appointed, and there likewise in the Zulia state, a very
28:03important state in the country, a governor candidate won, and it was proclaimed. He was
28:14proclaimed as governor. There have been a lot of cases or many cases as that, but the issue of
28:25elections for them is different, and they didn't achieve that because today it seems like a
28:34festivity in the country. It seems like January 1st, like a rebirth of this year. It is January 2nd
28:48in the sense of tranquility, people at their homes reflecting, mulling over,
28:55and they keep posted with this news we are telling you.
29:04So, we must recall that the electoral council has informed that in the coming hours,
29:11there will be available in the official website the results, a thorough analysis of the results
29:23of each polling station. This is what is valid, not a photocopy of what you
29:33intended to do in November last year in a warehouse, in a house, as we were told
29:43that they were used. So, that doesn't exist. You won't be able to do that here.
29:56The few acts of violence I have to mention, they are severely punished.
30:05Tonight, there have been 60 incidents during the electoral process, and there were 17 detentions,
30:18arrests, moments outside the polling stations of the regular behavior of voters,
30:33but nothing serious. So far, these are the regular incidents that could occur in any country.
30:47This is an extremely small figure, because if we consider that the elections occur
30:57in 57 polling stations with thousands of automating machines in those polling stations.
31:13So, this speaks very well of the Venezuelan sector, and of the awareness of the Venezuelan
31:20people. In some of the incidents that occurred yesterday, we are going to refer
31:33to those incidents. There were people who swallowed their ballots.
31:39There were strange things that have been happening, but let's say that it's not the
31:46regular thing. It's not the usual that we saw, but I repeat, 15,700 polling stations
32:00and 30,000 electoral computer machines. The negative incident occurred in Zulia,
32:11a group of criminals destroyed an asset in Rio Negro Parish, and they burned down
32:21the electoral machines, and that's why three of them were arrested as they were identified by the
32:33own community, and we are going to punish with all the force of law. They were arrested because they
32:44intended to close up the polling station in Carabobos. Juan Rodriguez Castillo was
32:55arrested as they assaulted authorities. Duclas Garcia and Jorge Gacero, they were
33:04arrested as they were the leaders of violent actions in a polling station near the park of
33:17Carabobos, located in Mexico Avenue in Libertador Municipality. In Zulia, they were identified
33:30as another criminal, as an instigator of a violent protest in the Monsenor Educative Unit,
33:41in which the criminals attacked two officials in Caracas, David Israel Correa,
33:51and he called on social media that people take the streets and not recognize the results,
34:13and so on July 29th, all cities have done at peace and tranquility, which demonstrates that
34:25the Venezuelan people don't want more violence and destabilization. In this way, the prosecutor's
34:32office complies with the duty of informing and transmitting a positive message of calm,
34:43like at the same time that we are active,
34:47we are active, all the prosecutor's office is active in all Venezuela, and we have maintained
34:55the 1,600 officials are deployed across the country, regardless of this camp, but we are
35:07aware that the Venezuelan people have talked and have demonstrated that they won't listen again
35:17to those who promote others for doing violent actions. We remember the uprisings of Guarimbas
35:33in 2017, in which a criminal gave a candy to do a violent crime, and there have been
35:51dozens of crimes in all the country by that time, by 2014, 2017, and so that's why
36:05I applaud the Venezuelan people, the Venezuelan people and government. Thank you very much.
36:14We were listening to the statements of the Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William
36:18Zab. The Attorney General congratulated the Venezuelan people for their exemplary actions
36:22during the electoral process, guaranteeing peace during voting. Tarek denounced destabilization
36:27attempts and attacks to generate hate and violence in Venezuela, yet Tarek said that
36:32it only makes Venezuela's victory even greater since the people defeated all those schemes,
36:37and today there is peace and tranquility in the country. The Attorney General provided
36:41additional updates on the attacks carried out against the electoral systems that
36:46intended to undermine the elections, and the Attorney General also announced that investigations
36:51have been launched into these incidents. Stay tuned with Telesor English for more updates
36:56in upcoming news briefs.