VENEZUELA The message of Leopoldo López: "Let's follow the streets until we reach our freedom" The Venezuelan opposition leader urges "to contain force" to end peacefully with "the threat of the Constituent Assembly"

Venezuelan opponent Leopoldo López has appeared for the first time since he was released from a video posted on YouTube during Wednesday morning in Caracas. The leader, who has been under house arrest for three weeks, seems to have closed the door to a possible suspension agreed between the government and the opposition of the election of a National Constituent Assembly, assuring that Venezuela is facing "a clear threat of annihilation of the Republic and democracy and the submission of the Venezuelan people. " That is why he has asked his compatriots to insist on the protests, which began nearly four months ago, through "actions of organized peaceful struggle" and "until freedom, democracy and peace are won."

During his three and a half years in prison, López, sentenced to 13 years and nine months for leading a demonstration toward downtown Caracas in February 2014, culminating in two deaths and several devastations, he posted several proclamations on social networks, but this one Wednesday has been the most extensive. The leader acknowledged "the cruel and inhuman treatment" he was subjected to during his stay in prison and has made an analysis of the country's political situation, the prospects of the opposition struggle, and concluded: "We are facing a very serious threat. Clear on the part of Nicolás Maduro and who accompany it with the project of the Constituent Assembly ". The proposal of the President of Venezuela will take shape this Sunday when 545 delegates will be chosen who will write a new Constitution. "They will not achieve it because of the conviction and the strength that each one of you has. We have to contain that force to conquer democracy, peace and freedom for all Venezuelans, "he said

The leader of the Popular Will party has addressed the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and reminded them of their obligations to the current Magna Carta. "Do not be part of a project of annihilation of the Republic or a group that just wants to stay in power," said Lopez, who stressed that if they stick to the Constitution, the armed forces "will have the people" .

A Maduro also dedicated a few minutes: "The message of July 16 must be complied with and we will enforce that mandate of the Venezuelan people. When a people decide to be free there is nothing and nobody to prevent it from achieving freedom. " Lopez referred to the popular consultation organized by the opposition in which almost 7.6 million Venezuelans rejected the Constituent Assembly, called on the armed forces to respect the Constitution and the selection of new members of the public powers by Parliament.

In recent days the government was willing to delay the consultation in exchange for the opposition to participate in the Constituent Assembly, but the MUD has rejected the proposal because the offer has not convinced. The opposition alliance maintains that the government should facilitate the opening of a humanitarian food and medicine channel, release all political prisoners, respect the powers of the National Assembly, stripped of its powers by the Supreme Court of Justice and advance the elections, As proposed at the end of 2016 with the permission of the Vatican. Former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has served as a liaison between the parties.