(CNN Spanish) — With less than two months until the presidential elections in Venezuela, international observation in these elections is one of the issues that marks the path towards July 28, the day for which the appointment with the polls is scheduled.
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, held a call this Wednesday with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro. Lula da Silva insisted in the conversation on “the importance of having broad participation of international observers,” reported the Government of Brazil.
The president of Brazil also highlighted the need to comply with the Barbados agreement signed between the Government and the opposition of Venezuela last October to hold elections with democratic guarantees.
The call between the leaders comes a week after Venezuela revoked the invitation to the European Union (EU) observation mission. The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, announced the decision by reading a statement in which he alleged that “it would be immoral to allow European participation knowing its neocolonial practices and interventionism against Venezuela, not being, consequently, its pleasant presence in an electoral process so important for democracy.”
The request to annul the observation was made by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, after UE announced the lifting of the sanctions it imposed on Amoroso, and three other officials while maintaining the measures against 50 people related to the government. of Maduro. Rodríguez called the EU leaders “rude, bastards, scoundrels, illegal and illegitimate.”
The EU, for its part, spread its reaction to Caracas’ decision through its social networks. “The European Union deeply regrets the unilateral decision of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela to withdraw its invitation to observe the presidential elections of July 28,” says the text published on the EU X account in Venezuela.
The opposition leader and winner of the Venezuelan opposition primaries, María Corina Machado, referred this Tuesday to the matter stated during a brief meeting with journalists. Machado stated that “the National Electoral Council had already issued invitations, including to the European Union, really for us it is a sign of fear, they are recognizing that they do not want to be observed, I think it is a big mistake, I think it should be reconsidered.”
The Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) of Venezuela, the coalition that brings together the majority of the opposition parties and that supports the candidacy of Edmundo González Urrutia, rejected the position of the electoral authorities and indicated in a statement that “it will not prevent what everyone We know that it will happen next July 28, which is the resounding victory that the Unity candidate represents.”
Brazil and Colombia recently announced that they will not send electoral observation missions to Venezuela. The CNE also extended invitations to the Carter Center, the United Nations (UN), the African Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
