The European Parliament announced, this Thursday (8), that it will not recognize Venezuela's presidential elections unless the Chavista regime allows the participation of the main opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, who is disqualified from running for public office.
The decision was the result of a resolution approved with 446 votes in favor, 21 against and 32 abstentions from MEPs, who criticized the decision of the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to disqualify the politician. According to them, the measure lacks a legal basis.
The approved document also condemns the “interference” of the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship in the country's electoral process, by trying to prevent other opposition politicians from holding public office.
Members of the European Parliament deplored the attacks, enforced disappearances, arrests and arrest warrants against the opposition, civil society, human rights defenders and journalists, and demanded an immediate end to the regime's persecution.
In the view of European authorities, the Maduro regime is not complying with the agreement signed last year in Barbados by representatives of Caracas and the opposition, to hold free and fair presidential elections in 2024.
“If all points of the Barbados agreement were respected, the 2024 elections in Venezuela could mark a turning point in moving from a corrupt autocracy to a return to democracy,” highlighted Parliament in a statement.
In this sense, MEPs urged European Union Member States to tighten existing sanctions against the Maduro regime until the dictator demonstrates a clear and permanent commitment to defending basic democratic norms, the rule of law and human rights.
Furthermore, they stated that the EU will not consider sending any election observation mission to Venezuela until there are clear guarantees that the Barbados agreement will be respected.
As a result, Venezuela's elections and electoral results “will not be recognized unless Machado is authorized to participate in the election and the recommendations of the EU electoral observation mission for 2021 are correctly applied”, says the document.
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