But Nicolás Maduro shows little sign of taking notice
In what is increasingly feeling like a sense of déjà vu, governments are ‘reiterating’ their “outright condemnation” of everything that has gone on in Venezuela since the ‘sham elections’ of July 28 – but very little seems to be coming of it.
Portugal yesterday – through minister of foreign affairs Paulo Rangel – reiterated its “outright condemnation of the persecution of the opposition” in Venezuela”, insisting that it is authorities’ “obligation to release detained Portuguese-Venezuelans”.
Rangel made his comments, via social network ‘X’, following talks with Edmundo González Urrutia – the opposition candidate claiming victory over Venezuela’s now three-term president Nicolás Maduro – and with de facto leader of the opposition, María Corina Machado.
A ministry source has told Lusa that the conversation lasted around 40 minutes.
At the same time, in Latin America, Brazil’s president Lula da Silva is calling for ‘new elections’, to try and resolve the ‘impasse’ – an interpretation of those on the outside, as those who are part of the Venezuelan regime, or who support it, continue to contend that Maduro won the elections fair and square.
This is almost exactly what happened during the last elections – when the outside world again insisted Maduro had rigged election results, and the president elect should have been Juán Guiadó – a man who eventually had to flee Venezuela.
But pressure this time to oust Maduro does seem stronger. The Venezuelan opposition and various countries have demanded that records of votes cast on July 28 be presented for independent verification. The response, this far, has been that this is “unfeasible due to a cyber attack”…
Thousands of protestors are now incarcerated in Venezuelan jails, dozens have lost their lives in rioting – and last week, Portugal’s government demanded the “immediate and unconditional release” of Williams Dávila Barrios, an opposition politician and former governor of the state of Merida, who also holds Portuguese nationality.
In a statement again published on X, Paulo Rangel said that Dávila Barrios had been arrested “arbitratily” and was “in poor health.”
At the same time, Portugal’s secretary of state for Portuguese communities abroad, José Cesário, has said that two Portuguese-Venezuelans – a man and a woman – were being held in Venezuela because of their participation in demonstrations against Maduro, while another Luso-Venezuelan has been detained by police in the town of Puerto Cabello, Carabobo state (north-central Venezuela).
EU foreign ministers are to discuss the situation in Venezuela at a meeting scheduled August 29 and 30 in Brussels – but if this ‘impasse’ goes on much longer, it may well be that Nicolás Maduro stays in place.
As President Lula has stressed, unless there are new elections (and unless these are independently verified), Venezuela faces the possibility of Maduro remaining a dictator forever… ND
Source material: LUSA/ CNN
