The European Union responded this Friday to the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela for a third term by ensuring that it does not have democratic legitimacy and that a majority of Venezuelans voted for the opposition candidate Edmundo González on July 28, in a elections marked by irregularities and whose official results have not been verified by the electoral authorities.
“Millions of Venezuelans voted for democratic change supporting Edmundo González by a significant majority, according to copies of the electoral records available to the public,” indicated a statement from the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallason behalf of the 27.
The Member States thus insist that the authorities have refused to publish the official minutes of the polling stations, which is why election results remain unverified and “they cannot be recognized as representative of the will of the people.”
“Nicolás Maduro therefore lacks the legitimacy of a democratically elected president,” the bloc summarized in its joint statement.
List of Venezuelans sanctioned by the European Union
The EU published in its Official Gazette the new list of those sanctioned on the day of the inauguration of the new president of Venezuela, including Caryslia Rodriguezpresident of the entity that ratified Maduro’s re-election, as the CNE had previously indicated, and is already the subject of US and Canadian sanctions.
Among those newly sanctioned are also other senior officials of the TSJ, such as the vice president of that court and its Electoral Chamber, Fanny Beatriz Márquez; the magistrate of the Constitutional Chamber Inocencio Antonio Figueroa, and the president of the Political-Administrative Chamber, Malaquías Gil Rodríguez.
Likewise, several officials of the National Electoral Council (CNE) have been sanctioned: its general secretary, Antonio José Meneses; its vice president, Carlos Enrique Quintero; its main rector, Conrado Ramón Pérez, and its main rector, president of the Civil and Electoral Registry Commission and member of the CNE Political Participation and Financing Commission, Rosalba Gil Pacheco.
The EU also included in this new list of those sanctioned the assistant prosecutor of the Public Ministry Luis Ernesto Dueñez Reyes, for participating in “the judicial persecution for political reasons” of the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia.
The Twenty-seven also sanctioned the special judge of the First Court of First Instance, Edward Miguel Briceño Cisneros, for issuing an arrest warrant on September 2, 2024 against González Urrutia, prosecuted for multiple political “crimes” for which he was forced to go into exile. to Spain on the 8th of the same month.
Also included are the director of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), Alexis José Rodríguez Cabello, and the deputy director of the same organization, Miguel Antonio Muñoz Palacios, whom the EU considers responsible for “serious violations and abuses of human rights and repression of civil society and the democratic opposition in Venezuela.
The chapter of members of the armed forces sanctioned for serious human rights violations includes the commander of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) since July 2023, Elio Ramón Estrada Paredes; the director of the Criminal Investigations Department of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) since 2021, Asdrúbal José Brito Hernández, and the operational strategic commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) since 2021, Domingo Antonio Hernández Lárez.
On the other hand, the EU published today in its Official Gazette the extension of the sanctions against people who were already on the blacklist – started in 2017 -, in which the EU has decided to once again include the president of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso, and three other members of that institution.
The list of those sanctioned already included the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, and the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, among others, but Maduro is not included.
United Kingdom also announces sanctions
The United Kingdom has also joined the sanctions announced by the European Union (EU) against Nicolás Maduro by publishing a new batch of fifteen sanctioned individuals associated with the Venezuelan Government, including the president of the Supreme Court, Caryslia Rodríguez, while He calls that presidency “illegitimate.”
In a statement released by the Foreign Office, the British Foreign Minister, David Lammy, describes Maduro’s presidency as “fraudulent”, coinciding with the day of the investiture.
Lammy reveals the new wave of sanctions to express the “serious concern” of the London Executive regarding the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela on July 28, in which “significant irregularities” were committed and “a lack of transparency was observed” .
Among those sanctioned are the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez, who helped legitimize the July 28 elections, according to the note, or the director of the Criminal Investigations Department of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM). since 2021, Asdrúbal José Brito Hernández.
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