Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has denounced this Monday, in a recorded message from the city of Panama, that the Government of Venezuela has ordered the closure of airspace with the objective of "preventing" her return to the country, just one day after announcing that she would return "very soon".
In a video disseminated through her social networks, Machado stated that "the regime wants to block my return to Venezuela and that of thousands of compatriots who want to go and help", reiterating her determination to return to "accompany" her countrymen in "these heartbreaking hours".
The opposition leader maintained that last June 24, the date on which the double earthquake that has so far left more than 1,700 dead was registered, her return to Venezuela "became unavoidable". In this context, she lamented that, in her opinion, "the regime" intends to "block" her "return" and that of "thousands of compatriots" willing to "go and help".
"They want to bury the truth when Venezuelans want to bury our dead with dignity", she stated, emphasizing that "the regime has gone to the extreme of closing Venezuela's commercial airspace to prevent" her "entry" into national territory.
In the same recording, after describing the "cancellation of flights by all airlines in a moment of emergency" as "absolutely inconceivable", Machado declared herself "ready to do whatever it takes" and "talk to whoever needs to be talked to" to "coordinate" and "serve" the Venezuelan population.
"I am ready and close to Venezuela. I will do whatever it takes to meet there", concluded the opposition leader in her video message, which she assured was recorded from the Panamanian capital.