CITY OF PANAMA.- He Government of Panama announced this Monday that suspends diplomatic relations with Venezuela and confirmed that remove your personal of the Latin American country “until a review of the minutes” of the presidential elections in which the CNE, with evident fraud, announced dictator Nicolás Maduro as the winner.
“The fragile relationship established in recent years with the Republic of Venezuela has been severely damaged in recent days. First, as a result of the unilateral closure by the Venezuelan government of the airspace for flights of our airline Copa Airlines on Friday, July 26,” explained the president, Jose Raul Mulino.
“Out of respect for the history of Panama, out of respect for the thousands of Venezuelans who chose our homeland to live in, and out of respect for my democratic convictions, I cannot allow my silence to become complicity,” the Panamanian president added.
Neither country has ambassadors, so bilateral relations are maintained through chargés d’affaires.
He also called the elections “an assault on the free, open and transparent democratic system.” “We cannot look the other way in the face of the attempted institutional coup against the sovereign decision of the people of Venezuela“, he added.
The Panamanian president said that “there is no other way than this decision” until the Venezuelan authorities carry out a review of the minutes, as well as the computer system for counting the votes.
With 80% of the votes counted, the National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by Chavismo, declared Maduro the winner with 51.2% of the votes compared to 44.2% for González Urrutia.
According to Mulino, “regimes that do not respect human rights and violate freedoms do not deserve diplomatic recognition.”
The Panamanian president criticized that “only 0.13% of (Venezuelans) living abroad were authorized to vote.”
Source: With information from Europa Press