Caracas. Venezuelan President and candidate for re-election, Nicolás Maduro, has justified this Saturday the denial of entry into the country to the politicians who tried to do so the day before, whom he has described as “non grata, ridiculous and very repudiated” people on Venezuelan soil.
“I think they are ridiculous. They know they are unwelcome people, they are people who are very repudiated even in their own countries (…). They are the extreme right, racists, fascists,” Maduro said in an interview broadcast on the social network TikTok and which was reported by the newspaper ‘La Nación’.
The president explained that these people had not been invited by the “Electoral Power”, while he distanced himself from the decisions of this body: “It decides who to invite and who not to. I don’t get involved in that. I see them on social media and they make me laugh because they are ridiculous.”
These statements come after several former Latin American presidents were grounded in Panama on Friday due to a “blockade of Venezuelan airspace.” Former Bogotá mayor Claudia López, Colombian senator Angélica Lozano Correa, Chilean senators Felipe Kast and José Manuel Rojo and the Spanish delegation of the Popular Party were also prevented from entering Venezuela.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has also spoken out about these deportations, warning that “only people with dignity can enter this sacred land.”
“Anyone who wants to enter Venezuela must understand that Venezuela must be respected,” he told a group of observers, according to the aforementioned media.
Among the former presidents who wanted to arrive in Venezuela as electoral “observers” were Vicente Fox of Mexico (2000-2006); Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia (2001-2002); Miguel Angel Rodríguez of Panama (1998-2002), among others.
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– 2024-08-04 16:20:47
