CARACAS.- 30 former heads of state of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA Group) issued an alert given the climate of political repression in Venezuela in the context of the presidential elections on July 28.
In this regard, they condemned the recent attack against the opposition leader. Maria Corina Machado occurred in the state of Lara, in the west of the country.
“The repression by the Nicolas regime Maduro “The growing number of cases involves an archbishop of the Catholic Church, the imprisonment or exile of the immediate collaborators of the fundamental leader María Corina Machado who is advocating for the candidacy of Edmundo González Urrutia, and the kidnapping of her security chief. The violation of the guarantees of a free and fair presidential election, which is observable by experienced international institutions, is the current constant, to which has recently been added the vandalism and damage to the security system of the vehicles in which Machado travels, threatening the lives of its occupants,” said the IDEA Group in a statement on July 18.
IDEA also denounced before the democratic international community and the governments supporting the Agreements of Barbados on the increase in restrictions on civic space and arrests recorded in Venezuela in the electoral context.
Venezuelans demand freedom
Likewise, the IDEA Group said that they observe that “the decisive majority of Venezuelans demonstrate sustainedly in the streets demanding freedom and democracy, and are taking the path of voting to peacefully decide their future in the proposed presidential elections.”
The former heads of state pointed out that if the paths to democracy are closed in Venezuela, “the continent itself will be accepting the continuation of the epidemic of elective authoritarianism – 21st century dictatorships – that are destroying democracy and the rule of law, arguing that they are protecting their people, and leaving them at the mercy of arbitrariness and despotism as if forced to emigrate.”
IDEA representatives said that, as always, they will be “on the side of the Venezuelan people.”
Source: IDEA Group
