The president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguez, announced this Thursday that the government of Nicolás Maduro will not allow the presence of a European Union Observation Mission in the country for the 2024 presidential elections. In a fiery harangue in the middle of the legislative session, Rodríguez, one of the normally moderate spokesmen for the revolutionary staff, stated: “We don’t have time to consider the request that they make to us to come. I tell you straight Josep Borrell, As long as we are the representatives of the Venezuelan State, you are not going to come. No mission from Europe will come here. They have violated the agreement we signed with them.”
Rodríguez, who has taken care to cultivate political relations with European diplomacy in recent years, thus responded to the pronouncement of the European Parliament on the Venezuelan situation. This Wednesday, with a very broad vote, the European Parliament condemned the political disqualification of María Corina Machadothe opposition leader who leads all the opinion polls for the opposition primaries, once again showed her “concern” at the evolution of the Venezuelan regime and called for the release of the 280 political prisoners.
Over the months, the more conciliatory attitude and willingness to dialogue between Maduro and Rodríguez has mutated to harden in the haggling of demands with their adversaries. The Chavista delegation that opened to negotiate with the opposition has redoubled its demands, refusing to return to a dialogue table with the anti-Chavista leaders that was initially explored in Mexico. The Venezuelan president has conditioned any approach or transfer to the release of the businessman Alex Saab, close to the Government and imprisoned for money laundering in the United States. It also demands the total dismantling of the sanctions adopted by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
In recent days, fears have increased in the opposition ranks regarding the possibility that the Supreme Court of Justice of the country, completely colonized by Chavismo, issues a sentence in which it admits the organization of the primaries, but forces the opposition to deal with the new directive of the National Electoral Council, which has not yet been named. This decision would embarrass the opposition, which had already decided to organize the election on its own after the resignation of the previous CNE leadership. A replacement dictated by Chavismo would, in all probability, generate new discrepancies in the opposition leadership.
The previous leadership of the CNE, relatively balanced and the result of a political agreement with the opposition in 2021, unilaterally resigned from their positions before the National Assembly a few weeks ago, without giving any public explanation – and also forcing the resignation of the opposition rectors. who did not want to resign – shortly after the opposition Electoral Commission asked them for assistance in organizing their primary elections.
On Wednesday, at the Andrés Bello Catholic University, -with the notable absence of Henrique Capriles, who declined at the last minute-, the debate of the 10 candidates for the primary election organized by the Unitary Platform through its Electoral Commission was held with citizenship, even with Venezuelans who left in search of opportunities. In the final greeting for the press, Machado, who assures that seeks to lead a common project and to overcome the troubles with other applicants, he refused to take the hand of his companions to make the sign of victory.
