CARACAS.- The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) warned this Tuesday that the Nicolas Maduro regime is promoting a discourse of violence in the face of presidential elections on July 28 whose objective is to generate electoral abstention.
Neirlay Andrade, a member of the PCV political bureau, said that the regime is trying to create “despair, fear, and dread in the population” so that they do not go out to vote.
“We are talking about provocations, arbitrary arrests, the closure of small businesses, harassment against political activists, but also about opinion matrices aimed at sowing doubts about the outcome of the electoral process, accompanied by insults against all those who oppose the anti-worker and anti-popular policy of the government of Nicolas Maduro“Andrade said.
He indicated that Venezuelans, on the contrary, “have placed their vote in the possibility of getting out of this catastrophe,” referring to the unprecedented crisis that Venezuela is experiencing. Venezuelaonce one of the richest countries in Latin America, but the socialist policies of Chavez led to a GDP drop of 80% in 10 years.
This Monday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (RELA) They warned that so far in 2024, at least 50 people linked to the opposition campaign, as well as “trade unionists, activists and journalists”, have been arrested in Venezuela. In addition, commercial premises that have been used by the opposition to hold meetings have been closed and opposition delegations have been detained on Venezuelan roads while travelling.
Both organisations also highlighted the closure of media outlets and the imbalance in electoral propaganda on radio and television.
The IACHR and the RELE considered that these events “are not isolated acts” but rather “are part of a pattern of persecution aimed at discouraging political participation by the opposition and the population in general.”
Since the electoral campaign began on July 4, NGOs have reported the arrest of 15 political leaders in several states of Venezuela while campaigning for the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
González reported on Monday that a restaurant in the state of Cojedes (center) where he ate last Sunday when he returned to Caracas after a political event was closed by the authorities.
“They closed the ‘Asados Taguanes’ restaurant in Cojedes, where my family and I ate on our way back to Caracas. Why punish the workers for welcoming those who think differently? I hug them and thank them for their cordial attention with a smile and a lot of hope,” he said in X.
The Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) and several NGOs have denounced that several hotels and restaurants have been fined by the state tax agency after having served opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia.
Source: With information from Monitoreamos / El Nacional / Efecto Cocuyo