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Venezuela Election Transparency: Calls for Fair Process

As Chavismo radicalizes its discourse in Venezuela, every hour that passes is crucial to trying to clarify the panorama after Sunday’s presidential elections, in which the ruling party, amid international skepticism, was endorsed as the winner by the electoral authority (the CNE).

The opposition, which claims victory, and its supporters continue to demonstrate in the country’s streets, while the state’s response has been repression. According to the Attorney General’s Office, more than 700 people have been arrested in two days of protests. On Tuesday, there was also a stir with the arrest of Freddy Superlano, an opposition leader from the Chavista stronghold of Barinas, a former presidential candidate for Voluntad Popular who last year gave up his aspirations to join María Corina Machado.

“We have conversations and communications; whatever their name, whatever their surname, they will go to jail,” said Diosdado Cabello, the number two of Chavismo. Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly and delegate to seek a consensus between the political sectors of Venezuela, went further and called for jail for the candidate of the Unitary Platform, Edmundo González, and for Machado. “The laws apply to them, and the Public Ministry has to act, not only with the drug-addicted thugs who are paid to intimidate, but also with their bosses. And I am not referring only to María Corina Machado but also to Edmundo González, because he is the head of the fascist conspiracy.”

According to the NGO Foro Penal, at least 11 people have died during the protests. The mood is heated in Venezuela, in contrast to the attitude that the international allies of the democratic left closest to Maduro are trying to maintain: Colombia and Brazil. Since Sunday, President Gustavo Petro has not spoken out, but El Espectador was able to learn that the situation in Venezuela was a topic that was discussed at the cabinet meeting that the president presided over at the Palacio de Nariño.

Similarly, Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo and, according to high-ranking sources, “in some way” President Gustavo Petro have maintained contact with both the government and the opposition. This contact has sought to enforce what the Foreign Minister stated in a video: “That they support the democratic process with evidence and with tools that the Constitution allows. Maintaining dialogue between the parties and avoiding violence will be fundamental.”

This is the same tone that has been maintained by Brazil, led by President Lula da Silva, who made clear in a call with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, the importance of the full publication of the minutes.

“Celso Amorim (Lula’s special envoy) was with Nicolás Maduro and Edmundo González and reiterated Brazil’s position to continue working for the normalization of the political process in the neighboring country, which will have positive effects for the entire region. Lula reiterated that it is essential to publish the electoral record of the elections held last Sunday,” the Brazilian Presidency said in a statement.

For Carmen Fernández, political consultant and CEO of DatastrategIA, the silence and moderate tone of both Lula and Petro have a positive interpretation. “It has been said that Lula, that is, that Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico could issue a joint statement. Since Maduro has traditionally allied with them, they are the three key actors on the continent. However, Lula has had a very frontal attitude in favor of democracy for the past month,” she analyzes.

As for Mexico, the president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, heir to the banners of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, joined the call for transparency but went further and opposed the interventionism of other political sectors in the region. “The first thing is transparency in the result and that it is finished counting; and the second, we do not agree with interventionism. Venezuela is a free and sovereign country, and the self-determination of the people must be respected,” said the future president.

The Organization of American States (OAS), whose secretary general, Luis Almagro, has in the past called Nicolás Maduro a dictator, issued a statement saying that “the complete manual for fraudulent handling of the electoral result was applied in Venezuela on Sunday night, in many cases in a very rudimentary manner.” They also said that if Maduro does not accept the result dictated by the minutes held by the opposition, new elections should be held with more international observers and even a new National Electoral Council that offers more guarantees.

This call to action is in response to a call from Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay, which asked the OAS Permanent Council to hold an urgent meeting to continue addressing the issue of Venezuela. This will take place this Wednesday at the organization’s headquarters in Washington.

The diplomatic missions of these nine countries sought to leave the country yesterday along with international observers, such as the Carter Center (which postponed the release of its report), who were present during the counts. For analyst Carmen Fernández, international and local pressure could lead to two paths: “an electoral recount or a new electoral process.” The question remains: how, or under what conditions? Of course, the pressure includes the negotiations that Lula and Petro seek to maintain: “There is an effort to negotiate, and it can have no other meaning than the recognition of the results and political change.”

Boris Muñoz, former director of the opinion section of The New York Times in Spanish, says that the role of the international community is also key for ordinary Venezuelans because, with all the institutions controlled by Miraflores Palace, “there is nothing to look for. The role that observation and support from countries that are watching with great concern what is happening in Venezuela can play is very essential.”

He also says that the role they play in guaranteeing the opposition is key. “So that Maduro does not feel free enough to do whatever he wants, even with the main leaders of this process, such as Henrique Capriles and María Corina Machado, who could be arrested or disappeared at any time, it is essential to have guarantees. The pressure that can be exerted from outside, from Brazil, Colombia, and the United States, is fundamental to preventing that from happening,” he says.

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