PS leader José Luís Carneiro will this evening become the first Portuguese political figure to visit the country since the United States ‘captured’ its president in a bloody attack, and assumed control of the country, on January 3 this year.
The purpose of his visit has been given as “meeting with representatives of the Portuguese community, representatives of the government and the national assembly”.
It will be an invaluable opportunity for Mr Carneiro to learn exactly how much life has changed since the Americans ‘took over’ on January 3 – and how Portuguese emigrés (believed to number up to 500,000 people) are feeling.
Reports coming in on the changes in Venezuela have been a mixed bag over the last few weeks, but generally the consensus is that life is showing signs of improvement. Citizens denied a say in the running of their country for decades are nonetheless anxious to get it. A recent survey has shown that 68% believe elections should be held within a year – and if a national vote was held right now, the ‘opposition’ led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corinna Machado (the woman who gave her peace prize to President Trump in January in a bid to perhaps influence his intentions for her country) would win hands down.
“Venezuelans are asking the rest of the world to share our sense of urgency,” Miguel Pizarro, a former National Assembly member and member of Machado’s Venezuelan Democratic Unity Platform has explained. “What, for a lot of people, started on January 3, for the Venezuelan people, started more than 20 years ago.”
It will be in this context that José Luís Carneiro’s visit takes place – at the moment that the United States has also lifted oil sanctions on Venezuela, to help alleviate shortages due to the war it started, with Israel, against Iran three weeks ago.
Accompanied by PS parliamentary leader Eurico Brilhante Dias, and Paulo Pisco – who is in charge of the PS department of Portuguese Communities – Mr Carneiro’s visit will last until Sunday.
By coincidence, the government’s secretary of state for the communities, Emídio Sousa, has also planned a trip to Venezuela. He is due to arrive at the end of March and stay three days into April.
Source material: LUSA/ CSIS (Centre for Strategic and International Studies)
