The US asked for unity in Venezuela to end the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and warned: “We are not going to lift the pressure”

While the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro continues with its intentions to hold parliamentary elections next December, the United States and a large part of the international community reiterate that there are no conditions for the development of free and transparent elections in Venezuela.

James Story, recently appointed by President Donald Trump as the new extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Venezuela, referred in an interview to The newspaper on the political situation in the Caribbean country, the interim government of Juan Guaidó, and the pressure from Washington on the Chavista regime.

Regarding the parliamentary elections called by Maduro for December 6, he said: “They are going to be a farce because there are no minimum conditions for elections in the country, something that more than 30 countries have just signed in an international statement, saying that no conditions exist in Venezuela ”.

Along these lines, he explained that “The script of the regime has always been to divide the opposition, let some people enter into false dialogues, buy or convince some to participate and each person has to make their own decision”: “But while there is censorship, repression, there are no voting machines in the country, there is no system, most of the political parties have been robbed, most of the politicians have been disqualified. So what the regime wants is to divide, of course, the opposition, and try to convince the international community that these elections are not fraudulent. “

Story recalled that in recent times the Maduro dictatorship not only “attacked” the traditional opposition parties, such as Democratic Action, Popular Will and First Justice, among others, but also intervened in left-wing spaces such as PPT, PCV, and Tupamaro : “If the people are not 100% aligned, the regime always attacks. What they want is a bought opposition, an official opposition that they can handle ”.

27 opposition parties refused to participate in the elections because they considered them fraudulent. Last week Guaidó summoned opposition leaders such as Antonio Ledezma and María Corina Machado to draw up a unity plan against the dictatorship. However, in the case of Machado, the opposition leader refused to be part of the Guaidó initiative. Asked if there are interests in the opposition in taking the role of the interim president, Story said: “I think there are people who think that they can come out of the ashes if they carry out self-attacks on the democratic opposition. Once they have a full transitional government, a free and fair presidential election, each person is going to have their chance in a primary or something like that. But this is not the time to have those conversations, this is the time to join forces, work together and see how the suffering of the people of Venezuela can be alleviated. “

The United States Charge d’Affaires in Venezuela underscored the need to increase internal pressure, beyond the efforts of the international community: “We believe that the movement should be political, of all thoughts, but also civic and social. For that reason the Church, the unions, the students, the doctors and nurses have a very important role ”.

When asked about a possible military intervention, Story did not give details about it and reiterated the importance of internal unity in Venezuela: “I am not going to speculate on actions that we are or are not going to take. But I insist on the unity of efforts within the country, around the legitimate powers. They guarantee international pressure and support ”.

“For us, President Guaidó remains the president until the usurpation ceases”, he asserted.

The US official highlighted Guaidó’s decision to support health workers in the midst of the fight against the coronavirus, and despite the dictatorship’s attempts to block payments: “I am very happy that President Guaidó has made an effort to support to the health heroes, who this week will receive their first payment. The dictatorship tried to block the payment of Venezuelan doctors, while they paid Cuban doctors.

Story affirmed that the sanctions imposed by the Donald Trump government on the Chavista leadership “are affecting the regime’s room for maneuver,” forcing Maduro to increasingly “look for other friends”: “I say friends in quotation marks, because sending gold bars to Iran to buy them is their way of having friends. Paying their debt to Russia is like buying friends. And it is the Cubans who are receiving everything. While there is a need for gasoline in Venezuela, the regime sends diesel to Cuba, sends oil and pays 100 times more to Cuban doctors than to Venezuelans. So his room for maneuver has been reduced a lot and I think it has its impact ”.

Regarding the effect that the United States elections may have on the current pressure on the Chavista dictatorship, Story recalled that in his country the Venezuelan crisis “is a bipartisan issue,” which worries both Republicans and Democrats. “The regime thinks that it will change American policy if there is a change of administration in the United States and what it does not understand is that the case of Venezuela is a bipartisan issue. Both Democrats and Republicans support the return of freedom and democracy to Venezuela. They are against a dictatorship as cruel as that of Nicolás Maduro ”.

Requesens and the Citgo prisoners

Last Friday, the regime released opposition deputy Juan Requesens after two years of keeping him confined in El Helicoide. The Charge d’Affaires of the United States spoke about this case, and that of the executives of Citgo, the North American subsidiary of the state oil company PDVSA.

“About the case of Requesens, I say the following: false dialogues do not solve things. I am glad that Juan Requesens is at home, but there are two important things. One is that if they let him out it is quite obvious that he was not part of the drone show in August 2018, because how can they let a person go out if they were involved in an assassination attempt as the regime says. And two, the way in which the deputy was imprisoned was unconstitutional and his rights continue to be charged with house for jail, ”he said.

“Regarding the Citgo case, according to the Venezuelan Constitution, they should already have had their chance to face justice. It has been more than two and a half years since these people have not had access to their constitutional rights “he added.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC:

The shameful use of political prisoners to force elections without guarantees in Venezuela

Oil, gold, missiles and terrorism: alert in the region for the dangerous friendship between the Maduro regime and Iran

Elliott Abrams assured that Nicolás Maduro’s front man, Alex Saab, “will have a fair and impartial trial in the US”