USA, EU. and 29 other countries issue a statement on the post-electoral situation in Venezuela

Published:

27 Sep 2024 00:23 GMT

Since the end of last July, the Venezuelan Government has accused the US of orchestrating conspiratorial plans to depose the re-elected president, Nicolás Maduro.

The United States Government, together with representatives of 29 other countries belonging to Europe and Latin America plus the European Union (EU), issued this Thursday a joint statement on the post-electoral situation in Venezuela, agreed upon after a meeting on the sidelines of the 79th regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, the US State Department reported.

In it documentthe signatories –among whom there are no actors like Brazil, Colombia or Mexico– warn about what they describe as “serious concerns about the urgent situation in Venezuela” related to the post-election context, with emphasis on the absence of publication of detailed electoral results by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

“Almost two months have passed since the elections and the demands for electoral transparency, both from Venezuelans and the international community, continue to receive no response,” alleges the text, which also alludes to alleged irregularities related to “transparency.” and integrity of the process” that would have been detected by “international electoral observers”, without specifying which ones.

Human rights

Likewise, Caracas is accused, without offering verifiable data or evidence, of having committed “abuses and violations of human rights” after the elections, which would include “arrests and arbitrary arrests”, “deaths”, undermining judicial processes and “intimidation tactics against the democratic opposition and other members of civil society”.

“We demand the immediate release of those arbitrarily detained without respecting the guarantees of a fair trial. It is essential that Venezuelans be allowed to express their political opinions peacefully, including through the exercise of freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, without fear to retaliation,” they demanded.

Contrary to these assertions, the Venezuelan Public Ministry accounted 27 murders in the context of violent post-election protests and numerous material damages. According to the investigations, the events were attributed to shock groups linked to the extremist wing of the opposition led by María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia.

Additionally, the Executive communicated the arrest of mercenaries of American, Spanish and Czech nationalities, who would have entered the country with the aim of perpetrating sabotage and attack high national authorities, seeking to achieve a ‘regime change’ strategy through violent means.

Gonzalez Urrutia

The statement ensures that an arrest warrant was issued against former candidate Edmundo González Urrutia “in the context of the violent repression against members of the opposition”, who, according to this version, would have been forced “to leave the country.”

This contradicts what González Urrutia himself stated in a letter which he signed jointly with the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, in which he expressed his desire to leave for the sake of national harmony and revealed his conditions to do so.

Likewise, the diplomatic representations of Spain and the Netherlands in Venezuela asserted that the Venezuelan politician express his willingness to leave and the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, told the press that the asylum request was being processed at the request of González Urrutia. Furthermore, from The Hague they specified that González Urrutia had been staying at his legation since July 29, when there was no arrest warrant against him.

On the other hand, Washington and the thirty countries that accompanied it in the declaration proclaim the former opposition standard bearer as the eventual winner of the contest “according to publicly available electoral records.”

The recognition came despite the fact that the veracity of that material has been questioned by various actors, its publication on an unofficial web portal lacks legal validity and the promoters of its supposed victory did not report it to the competent bodies.

Other actors such as the European Parliament and the Spanish Congress have imitated this procedure and have required the recognition of González Urrutia as “elected president” of Venezuela, which has generated claims from Venezuela, considering that, in addition to ignoring local institutions, these acts constitute unacceptable interference in its internal affairs.

Aside from the Venezuelan allegations, the US, the EU and 29 countries urged “Venezuelan political leaders” to initiate “constructive and inclusive debates about a transition with guarantees for both parties to resolve the country’s political impasse.”

Coup and terrorism

Since the end of last July, the Venezuelan Government has accused the US of orchestrating conspiratorial plans to depose President Nicolás Maduro through unfounded allegations about the elections and false allegations of human rights violations.

In this framework, the opposition led by Machado and González Urrutia would have carried out a “a CIA format designed in the US“which contemplates an alliance with “organized crime elements” to untie violent protests with seditious purposes, said Foreign Minister Yván Gil.

In the midst of the tension, Washington imposed sanctions against 16 Venezuelan officials, which was qualified as a “crime of aggression” and, more recently, the Venezuelan president displayed before the cameras a US-made assault rifle that apparently would be used for “terrorist attacks”, which would be organized by the Central Intelligence Agency of that country ( CIA) and the National Intelligence Center of Spain.

• On August 22, the Supreme Court of Justice ratified Maduro’s victory in the presidential elections last July, verifying in an expert report requested by the president that the results used by the CNE to announce the winner of the contest were free of defects. On that occasion, González Urrutia disregarded the summons of the highest court and the parties that supported him did not deliver the minutes collected by their electoral witnesses.
• The declaration of this September 28 was signed by the Governments of Germany, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, USA, Estonia, Guatemala, Guyana, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic, United Kingdom, Sweden, European Union and Ukraine.