The veto on a flight in which former Latin American leaders were to travel from Panama to Venezuela to be electoral observers and a protest note from Chile motivated by the deportation of other observers increased tension on Friday two days before the elections, in which Nicolas Maduro seeks a third term.
Maduro, 61 years old and in power since 2013, has as his main rival on Sunday the diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 74, nominated by the opposition alliance Plaforma Unitaria following the political disqualification of its original candidate, María Corina Machado, and other leaders.
Venezuelan authorities prevented a Copa Airlines flight from taking off from Panama’s Tocumen airport with the former presidents among its passengers, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino denounced on Friday.
They are former leaders Mireya Moscoso (Panama), Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (Costa Rica), Jorge Quiroga (Bolivia) and Vicente Fox (Mexico), members of the right-wing Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA Group) and strong critics of Maduro.
“The plane (was) full, completely full, of Venezuelans who were going to vote.“, Moscoso said at a press conference. “We saw tears, (people) crying, telling us: please stay, don’t go!”.
Fox, meanwhile, called it a “bad signal”.
On Wednesday, powerful Chavista leader Diosdado Cabello announced that they would be barred from entering.
“If you are not invited to a party, what do they say to you? (…) they say: ‘Please be kind, and leave’ (…). They are showmen,” Cabello said on state television. “They are not going to come here to screw you over.”“, he added.
The Chilean government, for its part, sent a note on Friday night protest to Venezuela for denying entry into the country to conservative senators José Manuel Rojo Edwards and Felipe Kast, who traveled to act as observers and who were returned to their country.
“This shows that all the words of some who say that this is a democracy, are simply a big lie.“Kast said.
Ten members of the Spanish People’s Party (PP) congress and MEPs, as well as a member of parliament from Colombia and another from Ecuador, also denounced their deportation upon their arrival at Maiquetía airport, which serves Caracas.
These incidents add to the alarms raised in the region by a warning from Maduro about “a bloodbath“if the opposition were to win, words that the presidents of Brazil and Chile, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gabriel Boric, expressed concern about.
Also this Friday, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa made a “Urgent call for an end to all forms of harassment and persecution against the political opposition and the electoral process itself”.
He said he was worried about “see how now the recalcitrant figures of an old politics want to perpetuate themselves in power, they want to keep this prosperous nation kidnapped”.
“All ready”
USAthe European Union and most Latin American governments ignored the Maduro’s re-election in 2018 in elections boycotted by the opposition, which called them a fraud.
“We have everything ready“said the president of the National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso, on Friday at an event in Caracas with international observers who were invited.
The process of installing more than 30,000 voting tables began in the morning, marked by complaints from opposition activists about delays. However, the Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino López, defended the deployment of the Plan República, the security operation to guard the elections.
“Warning! The intention is already to disturb the electoral climate with biased denunciations through social networks“, questioned on X Padrino, who this week denied that the Armed Forces are going to be”referee”.
González Urrutia asked that institution “respect and make others respect” the results at the polls.
Mass arrests
Machado He reported that he spoke with the presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei; Paraguay, Santiago Peña; and Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou. He thanked them in X “your solidarity and support” in the “fight for democracy”.
“We will always be with the Venezuelan people“, Milei replied.
The human rights NGO Foro Penal also reported on Friday that 135 people linked to the campaign of opposition leader González Urrutia have been arrested, of whom 47 remain in detention.
There are 10 candidates in this electoral process in which 21 million of the 30 million Venezuelans are called to participate. The polls favor Gonzalez Urrutiabut Chavismo dismisses them and accuses its adversaries of planning to ignore the results and generate violence.
Source: Gestion
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
