Leaders and opposition parties in Venezuela repudiated this Wednesday (04/25/2024) the disqualifications imposed by the Comptroller General’s Office against five politicians who are active in anti-Chavista formations and who will now not be able to compete for popularly elected positions.
The Venezuelan Comptroller’s Office, of the official line, reported that it politically disqualified two current mayors and three former deputies, who join an extensive list of leaders that includes the leader María Corina Machado.
This type of sanction has been systematically practiced during the era of Chavismo, targeting leaders with wide popularity such as Machado, who won the opposition primaries and is a favorite in the polls, but was ineligible for the July 28 elections in which President Nicolás Maduro will seek a third term.
The sanctions were announced for a period of 15 years for mayors Elías Sayegh of the El Hatillo municipality of the Caracas Metropolitan Area, and José Antonio Fernández López of the Los Salias municipality of Miranda state (center).
Former deputies Tomás Guanipa and Carlos Ocariz, former mayor of the Sucre municipality (2008-2017), were also disqualified for 15 years, while the sanction was 12 months for former parliamentarian Juan Carlos Caldera. All co-partisans of the two-time presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles, another disqualified by the Comptroller’s Office, in 2017.
Comptroller’s Office did not specify reasons for disqualifications
The resolutions where the disqualifications are established are dated April 16, 2024, according to the document published by the Comptroller’s Office on its official website, which does not specify the reasons why the politicians were sanctioned.
The presidential candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) – the main opposition bloc -, Edmundo González Urrutia, expressed his solidarity with those sanctioned.
The Delegation of the Unitary Platform for Negotiation described the measures as illegal and unconstitutional. “We demand the restitution of the political rights of all those disqualified, the cessation of the persecution and criminalization of politics and full compliance with the Barbados Agreement,” added the opposition bloc, detailed the local newspaper El Nacional.
“We repudiate the new disqualifications of the Comptroller General’s Office, another example of the urgent need to recover the rule of law in our country,” said the former diplomat in X.
Capriles: “illegal and unconstitutional disqualifications”
On the same social network, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles accused the Government of Nicolás Maduro of using the Comptroller’s Office “as the executing arm of its repressive and antidemocratic vision.”
“New illegal and unconstitutional disqualifications against colleagues without any crime, but, even more serious, without the right to defense,” said the opponent, who predicted that in the presidential elections on July 28, “millions” will vote to remove Chavismo. of power, which he came to in 1999.
Likewise, the Primero Justicia (PJ) party, in which three of those sanctioned are active, considered that these measures constitute a “clear attempt to undermine the democratic process and the unity” of the opposition, ahead of the July elections.
“We urge the international community and human rights defenders to condemn these actions and monitor the situation in Venezuela,” the group added.
jc (efe, afp, El Nacional)
