Versión Español
Spanish – The Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, said the participation of a faction of the opposition coalition led by former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski in the electoral fraud scheduled for December 6 was “absurd” and noted that “collaboration with the dictatorship makes them part of the dictatorship, not the opposition.
Almagro’s statements come in the wake of a report issued by the United Nations recognizing the crimes against humanity committed by the regime of Nicolás Maduro, along with its Ministers of the Interior and Defense, whose responsibility, according to Almagro, extends to other foreign agents, especially Cubans who repress and torture in Venezuela, as has been indicated by victims of the regime.
The publication of this report arises after an investigation made public by several NGOs, confirming that the various Venezuelan security forces under the command of Nicolás Maduro are responsible for at least 1,611 extrajudicial executions in the first half of this year.
The OAS representative stated that “it is absurd to think that those who commit crimes against humanity who repress and eliminate opposition and dissidence can organize free and fair elections. It is also absurd to say that those who participate in the elections can be considered as a fragmented opposition; collaboration with the dictatorship makes them part of the dictatorship, not the opposition.”
Almagro’s statement is a clear response to the rupture that by Henrique Capriles Radonski and Congressman Stalin Gonzalez have caused within the opposition by announcing that – under unreliable conditions – they would support electoral fraud with their participation in the process and a reversal of the statements by the interim government of Juan Guaidó.
This event has been observed with caution by the coalition of governments that recognize Guaidó as interim president due to the series of tricks of Nicolas Maduro’s regime that have come to light to give legitimacy to the tyrannical regime he heads.
“It is necessary that the international community stop giving the regime options for legitimizing clearly fraudulent elections as certain international actors have done, acting in coordination with local political actors complicit with the dictatorship.”
Criticism of the UN report
Secretary Luis Almagro also subtly criticized the UN for something visible from every angle: the time it took the body to speak out on a series of events that have devastated the lives of millions of Venezuelans through inhumane practices and cruel treatment for more than two decades.
Comunicado de la Secretaría General de la @OEA_oficial sobre el Informe de la @ONU_es sobre crímenes de lesa humanidad en #Venezuela. #OEAconVzla https://t.co/EppnlxF3ba pic.twitter.com/DlfAdGZhml
— Luis Almagro (@Almagro_OEA2015) September 16, 2020
Accordingly, the OAS representative indicated that “while the General Secretariat welcomes the publication of the report, we cannot fail to point out the delays in demanding accountability. In the area of human rights, the speed of the actions of the organizations involved in their defense is urgent. It is literally a matter of life and death.”
The concern about the position of the representation of Nicolás Maduro’s regime within the United Nations Human Rights Council is also a constant within the statements issued by Almagro since it is incoherent to have a regime that is the architect of crimes against humanity within the Council.
“The incongruity could not be more noticeable in light of the report just presented by the Council itself. We urge the international community to act on it,” he said.
The communiqué closed with a call for coordinated and joint action, intending to exercise all the corresponding methods of pressure to bring those responsible for these crimes against the Venezuelan people to justice.
“It is not a time for ambiguity; it is a time of justice; it is not a time to find terms of coexistence with the Venezuelan dictatorship; it is a time to re-establish democracy in the country”, the report concludes.
