Chavismo strains the electoral route in Venezuela by revoking the observation invitation to the European Union

The path to the Venezuelan elections is not a straight line, but situations occur every week that leave clues about whether the vote on July 28 will be competitive, or at least semi-competitive. For a week, Chavismo had been announcing that it would rescind the electoral observer invitation that it had sent to the European Union and this Tuesday it carried it out through the National Electoral Council, where it has a majority. Elvis Amoroso, its president, someone very close to Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, announced that “the invitation made last March to Brussels with the aim of sending international observation to the elections, which was They will celebrate in exactly two months.

Amoroso finally decided to accept the proposal publicly made to him by the president of the Venezuelan Parliament – and his party colleague – Jorge Rodríguez, after European officials had announced that the sanctions imposed against him, as president of the Electoral Branch, would be lifted. but they would remain in force against other officials of the instance and the State. That is to say, this crisis, counterintuitively, has been caused by a relaxation of sanctions by Europe.

The European concession, designed to stimulate the political opening of the Chavista Government within a previous framework of political contacts, had received a strident and offended response from Jorge Rodríguez a couple of weeks ago, in which he called the European officials “rude, bastards, scoundrels, illegal and illegitimate,” and that was when he proposed to Amoroso to revoke their invitation to come to the country on the day of the election.

Like other officials of the Chavista revolutionary state in recent years, Amoroso was sanctioned by the European Union in June 2020, accused of “undermining democracy and the rule of law” in Venezuela, which prevented him from entering community territory and imposed a freeze. of assets. This time Amoroso argued in a statement read that, on May 13, “the European Union ratified the genocidal and coercive sanctions against the country, a situation that affects all our inhabitants, the sovereignty and independence of our nation.”

“It would be immoral to allow European participation knowing its neocolonial practices and interventionism against Venezuela, consequently not being a welcome presence in an electoral process so important for democracy,” he added. Amoroso recounted the economic calamities that national society has had to experience in these years of Maduro hegemony – shortage of medical supplies and food, mandatory allowances to buy food on certain days of the week, hyperinflation, electricity crisis, lack of fuel, hospital crisis -, and, as if the public treasury had not been administered by Chavismo, he attributed all responsibility for the Venezuelan crash to the international sanctions of recent years.

“The international community knows the incalculable patrimonial damage that has been caused to the people of Venezuela, affecting the health of children and the elderly as a result of the European Union sanctions, as they prevent access to medicine and food.” The Government of Nicolás Maduro is currently deploying a powerful propaganda offensive in the media and billboards in which it blames the Venezuelan opposition for the shortages and bankruptcy of these years, presumably for asking the United States and Europe for sanctions that prevent the Government market goods or acquire imported inputs.

The statement from the president of the National Electoral Council received an early response from European officials. The statement in response states that Europe “deeply regrets” the unilateral decision of the ruling party. Next, he states: “The Venezuelan people should be able to elect their president in credible, transparent and competitive elections, supported by international observation, including the European Union, which has a long and distinguished history of independent international observation.”

The European statement concluded by asking the country’s authorities to reconsider their decision, “in accordance with the Barbados agreement, which specifically recognizes that the European Union should be invited to observe these elections.” Very shortly before Amoroso’s pronouncement, – probably foreseeing what was going to happen – the Unitary Platform, an entity that brings together the most important parties of the Venezuelan opposition, had issued a statement in which it demanded “the immediate formalization of the invitation to the European Union for electoral observation in the country.” The opposition also recalled the binding nature of the contents signed in the Barbados agreement.

However, Amoroso made the effort to raise the existence of a broad call for international guests to the Venezuelan presidential elections – which will be held this July 28, the birth of the late Commander Hugo Chávez -, highlighting the call to the Carter Center, the United Nations, the African Union, Celac, ALBA and other subregional forums. All of them, he stated, will be able to participate in the observation of the Venezuelan presidential elections, “as long as they respect the principles of sovereignty, the National Constitution and the laws.”

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