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Most members of the Organization of American States passed a resolution to reject Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Venezuela. Bolivia and Mexico rejected the initiative and five countries, including Argentina, abstained from voting.
Twenty-one countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved this Wednesday a resolution rejecting the result of the parliamentary elections in Venezuela and accusing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of trying to consolidate a “dictatorship.”
Against the initiative, Mexico and Bolivia were positioned; while five countries abstained, including Argentina, which continues to be silent on its recognition of the elections.
Maduro’s traditional allies, such as Nicaragua and Antigua and Barbuda, decided to absent themselves in protest, considering that the Permanent Council meeting was called “improperly”, since Maduro’s Venezuela officially withdrew from the body in 2019.
Currently, the chair of Venezuela is occupied by Gustavo Tarre, appointed by the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim president of Venezuela by fifty nations and who was one of the promoters of the resolution, along with nine other countries (Canada, Chile , Colombia, Ecuador, USA, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay)
An expected rejection
Specifically, the text approved today resolves “to reject the fraudulent elections held in Venezuela on December 6, 2020 and not to recognize their results for not having been free or fair in accordance with the conditions established in international law.”
The OAS had already established the legal basis for not recognizing the elections with another resolution approved in October, which established that the results would only be accepted if “political prisoners” were released, there was international electoral observation and “all political actors ”.
In the parliamentary elections held on Sunday, Chavismo was proclaimed the winner by a wide margin and in a context of low participation, while the sector of the position that is grouped under the figure of Guaidó did not participate because they considered them fraudulent.
Guaidó has also called a popular consultation in rejection of the elections and in which he wants to ask Venezuelans if they accept the electoral result.
In this regard, the resolution takes note “with satisfaction” of this initiative and calls for presidential and parliamentary elections to be called “as soon as possible” that comply with the guarantees established by international law and as part of a “transition” to a “democratically elected” government.
Dictatorship, a term that was taboo
In a striking way, the text includes the word “dictatorship” to refer to the Maduro government, a term that until now the countries of the organization had resisted including in the official texts they approve, although some such as Brazil and Colombia have used it. repeatedly.
Specifically, the initiative condemns “in the strongest terms the consistent and deliberate strategy of the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro to undermine the democratic system and the separation of powers,” especially with the installation in January of the newly elected deputies of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), the only body that up to now controlled the opposition.
In line with the rejection of the electoral results, the OAS establishes that the new NA is a “non-democratically elected entity” and, therefore, affirms that Maduro is “consolidating Venezuela as a dictatorship”.
In the resolutions on Venezuela approved in the last five years by the OAS and reviewed by Efe, the word “dictatorship” does not appear, which many of the ambassadors used vehemently today during the virtual meeting.
For example, the Uruguayan ambassador, Washington Abdala, gave a speech in which, visibly exalted, he considered that it is necessary to speak with “passion” before the “only truth of the matter”, which is the “tyranny” of Venezuela.
“Dictators are pointed with the finger,” he said while pointing his index finger at the camera. “Dictators are accused and made to feel what they are, dictators, who break democracies and do not uphold the truth and who do not believe in the rule of law. That is what Mr. Maduro and his companions are ”.
A “titanic dictatorship”
However, Abdala admitted that the actions of the OAS have a limited impact on the reality in Venezuela, where in his opinion Maduro is trying to buy time to perpetuate himself in power with “tricks” such as Sunday’s elections.
“The reality is that we fight with pens, with papers, with our rhetoric and our verbiage, but in Venezuela there is a tyrannical dictatorship that acts with violence. That is the reality ”, he sentenced.
Maduro considers that the OAS is an instrument of Washington, does not recognize its legitimacy and, in fact, did not even invite him to observe the legislative elections on Sunday, a hand that did extend to the European Union (EU).
The EU, which ultimately did not observe the elections, has rejected the electoral results, a position that has been adopted by fifty nations.
On the contrary, the old allies of Maduro, Cuba and Russia, have congratulated Chavismo for its victory.
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