This initiative was led by Italy and France, specifically by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron, with the support of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and Spanish President Pedro Sánchez.
The document was distributed by the foreign ministries of the seven countries on Saturday, August 3, and in it the leaders expressed their “deep concern” about the events that occurred after the presidential elections held last Sunday, July 28 in Venezuela.
“We urge the Venezuelan authorities to quickly publish all voting records to ensure the full transparency and integrity of the electoral process. The opposition indicates that it has collected and published more than 80% of the voting records from each polling station. This verification is essential to recognize the will of the Venezuelan people,” the statement reads (see here).
With the world’s eyes on Venezuela, international pressure is seeking to ensure a future of stability and respect for fundamental rights for all Venezuelans. “The Meloni government did well to promote this joint declaration,” he said at the event. The Americas Newspaper Fratelli d’Italia Senator Cinzia Pellegrino, who is also a member of the EU Political Commission in the Italian Senate.
“We need transparency, which Maduro has so far denied, regarding an electoral result that is not convincing, given the accusations of fraud by the opposition and the way the elections were conducted. Against this bloody communist regime, our response is only one: we are on the side of the people, democracy and freedom,” he said.
“We have our hearts in Venezuela”
In response to the call made by Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colrina Machado, this Saturday, August 3, Venezuelans living in Italy took action with peaceful demonstrations in different cities of the peninsula.
The largest rally took place in Rome, where an independent citizens’ movement – which was organized after the electoral fraud – managed to bring together hundreds of Venezuelans in the Roman Forum, where even members of the Cuban community participated. Also present were Senator Cinzia Pellegrino, representing the Italian government, the youth leader of the Forza Italia party, Simone Leoni, and the municipal councilor of the IX municipality of Rome, the Italian-Venezuelan Antonio Sotillo.
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COURTESY: MARINELLYS TREMAMUNNO
“We have our hearts in Venezuela,” said the senator during the rally, “not only because it is a question of freedom, but because many Italians went, some time ago, to seek their fortune in Venezuela. And we have the right and the duty to defend them.”
Pellegrino stressed the importance of protecting Italian investments: “Many companies have been formed in Venezuela. And we have the duty to defend them,” he said, and assured that they will do everything necessary to protect them. “We live with apprehension this moment of blood, as Maduro called it. We will do everything possible to support, not only the Italian-Venezuelans, but all the Venezuelan people,” he said.
The senator recalled that the week before the elections, her Fratelli d’Italia party presented a resolution to the Italian Senate to express concern about the elections, calling for them to be “free and democratic.” However, history has proven them right in their pessimism, so she described Venezuela as a dictatorship and called Maduro “a dictator and murderer,” due to the violent repression of protests. “Whoever calls for deaths in their streets and does so by putting armored cars on the streets cannot but be considered a murderer of his own people.”
“The vote of the Venezuelan people must be respected, and that is why strong action is needed from the EU, Italy and the entire West. If the West bows its head today and lets dictator Maduro continue with these actions, tomorrow it will be another country. Today we are all Venezuela,” Simone Leoni emphasized.
Active Italian-Venezuelans
At the same time, Venezuelans also made themselves heard in a symbolic act of hope and resistance against the violence that Venezuela suffers in seven other cities: Milan, Marina di Camerota, Florence, Pescara, Palermo, La Spezia and Sardinia.
In Milan, City Councillor Riccardo De Corato, elected through the Fratelli d’Italia Party, explained to those present that both Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed their support for the Venezuelan people: “We do not tolerate the existence of a country as important as Venezuela governed by a dictatorship. That is why we will do everything, as an Italian government and also in Europe, to restore to Edmundo González the power that the Venezuelans gave him through their vote,” he said.
He urged the international community to remain vigilant and demand an immediate end to the persecution and human rights violations in Venezuela. “I hope this situation is resolved soon because if not, we will have to mobilize all of Europe against the dictator,” he said.
In Sardinia, Italians joined in the grief of Venezuelans with a minute of silence in honour of the fallen heroes during the struggle for democracy in Venezuela. The activity was promoted by the Italian-Venezuelan Emilinda Story during a gastronomic fair dedicated to Venezuelan food, organised by the Is Giogus association in Amsicora square in Marrubiu.
With these actions, both Venezuelans in Italy and the Italian government will remain firm and active until the popular will demonstrated in the elections of July 28 is respected. This was confirmed by the member of the Comando ConVzla, Jesús Hernández from Marina de Camerota: “We must stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Venezuelan people, that is why we ask for the solidarity of the Italians and of the whole world,” he concluded.
