The Brazilian government ratified this Wednesday the importance of the presidential elections in Venezuela having a “large presence of international observers,” in accordance with the agreements signed in Barbados.
“Whoever wins the elections next July, whether the government or the opposition, will need everyone to accept their legitimacy. Hence the importance of the participation of international observers,” said the Foreign Minister of Brazil, Mauro Vieira, during an appearance before the Foreign Relations Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of his country.
In May, Brazil announced that it would not send observers to the elections to be held on July 28 in Venezuela. Although he did not specify reasons, the announcement came shortly after The Venezuelan electoral body revoked the invitation to a European Union Electoral Observation Mission (EU EOM) for the elections.
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, highlighted at the beginning of June the importance of having a “broad presence” of international observers in the July elections, during a telephone conversation with his counterpart, Nicolás Maduro.
The decision of the National Electoral Council (CNE) on the EU EOM occurred after, in the framework of efforts to achieve competitive elections, the bloc extended “for a shorter period” the sanctions against Venezuelan officials and lifted those that weigh on several of them, among them Elvis Amoroso, president of the CNE.
The EU EOM is one of the technical electoral observation missions that the government and the opposition agreed to invite in the agreement signed in Barbados.
Following the withdrawal of the invitation to the EU mission, Colombia also reported that it would not send observers to Venezuela. Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) is evaluating the CNE’s invitation to deploy a panel of experts for the elections.
Brazil, on several occasions, has expressed its commitment to the agreements that both the government and the opposition accuse each other of having violated.
Lula and the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, considered allies of Maduro, have been in favor of electoral guarantees for all Venezuelan political actors and have openly questioned the political disqualifications against the opposition, which denounces a new “wave of repression” and persecution .
Petro qualified as a “anti-democratic coup” that the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, winner of the presidential primary, but disqualified from holding public office, has not been allowed to register to participate in the elections.
Lula Da Silva, meanwhile, described as “extraordinary” that the opposition has united and named the diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia as a consensus candidate, after it was impossible to register Machado and his substitute candidate, Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old philosopher. years that he had no impediments to apply.
In April, Petro said he had proposed to the Venezuelan government and opposition to hold a plebiscite that would guarantee a “democratic pact” and certainties, including life safety, for whoever loses the elections.
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