Caracas. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday apologized for vetoing a group of former presidents, congressmen and parliamentarians who were prevented from entering the country to observe Sunday’s presidential elections after being invited by the opposition.
“I apologize because in Spain, Mexico, and Panama they were upset with Venezuela because we sent those people back. I apologize for having sent (Vicente) Fox back to Mexico and Mireya Moscoso back to Panama. People were very angry in Panama and in Spain,” said Maduro at a meeting with international observers invited by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Venezuelan authorities yesterday prevented the entry of several former governors, deputies and parliamentarians who planned to observe the elections in which Maduro has as his main rival the diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, 74 years old, who represents the leader María Corina Machado on the electoral ballot after her disqualification.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino denounced that Venezuela had prevented the takeoff of a Copa Airlines flight that was to transport several former leaders from Panama to Venezuela.
They were former presidents Moscoso, Fox, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (Costa Rica) and Jorge Quiroga (Bolivia), members of the right-wing Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA Group) and strong critics of Maduro.
Around ten members of parliament and MEPs from the Spanish Popular Party (PP) have also denounced being deported. The same has happened to a parliamentarian from Colombia and another from Ecuador.
Powerful Chavista leader Diosdado Cabello had warned on Wednesday that these observers would be denied entry because they had not been invited by the electoral authority.
According to Maduro, the CNE invited 910 observers from 100 countries.
“There is a law here and the law is respected,” said the president, who insisted that the results will “be recognized and respected by the entire Republic.”
Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández had been invited by the CNE, but this week that organization asked him not to travel to Venezuela because it considered him not to be impartial, after statements in which he said that if Maduro is defeated in the elections “what he has to do is accept.”
The CNE also cancelled an invitation to send a mission of observers from the European Union.
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– 2024-08-03 23:05:55
