The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, urged the world on Tuesday to reject the results of planned elections in Venezuela next month, certifying the socialist regime has made a free and fair election impossible.
Addressing an online conference, Almagro said that the parliamentary election is the latest “mechanism of impunity” dictator Nicolás Maduro has implemented.
“This cannot be accepted by the international community. We must be clear about it, reject that idea and any political opportunity to try and validate that process,” he explained. “It is completely unacceptable from every point of view. These elections are one more mechanism of impunity and cooptation of the powers of the state.”
Maduro is framing the elections, scheduled to take place December 6, as an opportunity to seize back control of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which is the country’s last remaining democratically elected lawmaking body. The last election considered free and fair in the country occurred in 2015 and yielded an overwhelming majority for opposition groups in the Assembly.
In response, Maduro illegally formed a parallel legislature in 2017 and has disregarded all legislation from the National Assembly. Since its creation, the body has unanimously passed a series of laws cracking down on citizen’s personal freedoms, such as the “Law Against Hatred and Fascism,” which attempts to silence all political opponents, particularly those within the country’s anti-socialist media.
The National Assembly has still managed to cause serious problems for the Maduro regime, particularly after it invoked the Venezuelan constitution to appoint its leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s legitimate president. Guaidó’s leadership was quickly recognized by the majority of democratic countries around the world, allowing him to set up an alternative government given control over many of Venezuela’s diplomatic relations and foreign resources and diplomatic relations.
The majority of current National Assembly members plan to boycott the upcoming election, citing the regime’s record of not hosting a single free and fair election under Maduro. The most recent example is the 2018 presidential election that declared Maduro declared the winner. Maduro banned nearly all opposition candidates, with the exception of one disillusioned former chavista, from running.
In September, Maduro accused President Donald Trump, Colombian President Iván Duque, and other opposition leaders of attempting to “sabotage” the upcoming elections, but assured that a “stubborn and conscientious, rebellious, fighting and warrior people” would participate in a democratic manner.
“In Venezuela, Donald Trump, [Colombian President] Iván Duque, or a fugitive from justice will not decide who will be the next deputies, but our beloved people in a sovereign way,” he declared. “The time has come to rescue the National Assembly and put it at the service of the people, who will rescue Citgo, the gold in London, and billions of dollars seized in Europe and the United States.”
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