Nearly thirty former heads of state have condemned the unconstitutional removal of Maria Corina Machado in Venezuela

About thirty former heads of state and government in Spain and Latin America failed on Tuesday “Unconstitutional exclusion” of Venezuela's main opposition coalition candidate for the 2024 presidential election, Maria Corina MachadoHe stressed that this “is still the legitimate representative of the opposition.”

The group of former Ibero-American presidents are members of Democratic Initiative for Spain and the Americas (an idea) expressed his refusal to ratify – by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) – the stripping of Machado of his political eligibility, a decision that he asserted lacked reason or basis.

Machado, “according to the rules of democracy, He remains the legitimate representative of the opposition in Venezuela and its presidential candidate before the international community (…) An overwhelming majority of Venezuelans supported him in the primaries.”

For the group, it is a performance.”Nicolas Maduro's dictatorship “Through a Supreme Court whose administration was recently entrusted to a member of the official party, a former chancellor, who has no legal practice or judicial experience, let alone academic experience.”

Proof of this is its “repeated disregard for the basic elements and components of democracy, as stated in the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”

On Monday, Machado thanked Venezuela for the “overwhelming” international response in refusing to ratify the Supreme Court of Justice for his political exclusion from competing in this and other elections until 2036.

IDEA accuses the Venezuelan regime of “A clear violation” of the Barbados ConventionsAccording to which the regime committed to respecting “the right of every political actor to choose his candidate… in accordance with his internal mechanisms.”

Calls on the guarantor States to act accordingly; In particular to the governments that signed the declarations issued as a result of the aforementioned agreements: the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, in addition to the European Commission.

Let us remember the group that alerted these countries on October 26 to “the criminalization that Maduro’s representatives, including the Venezuelan First Lady, were preparing,” Flores ciliaTo stop the nomination of Maria Corina Machado.”

The declaration was signed by the former presidents of the Spanish government, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy. former captains of Colombia Andrés Pastrana, Iván Duque, and Álvaro Uribe; From Chile, Eduardo Frei and Sebastian Piñera; From Ecuador, Guillermo Laso, Lenin Moreno, Lucio Gutierrez, Osvaldo Hurtado, and Jamil Mahuad, and from Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga and Carlos Mesa.

It was also signed by former Paraguayan presidents Mario Abdo, Federico Franco and Juan Carlos Wasmosi. From El Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani; From Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, Laura Chinchilla, Rafael Ángel Calderon, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, and Luis Guillermo Solís; From Panama, Nicolas Ardito, Ernesto Pérez and Mireya Moscoso; From Uruguay, Luis Alberto Lacalle; From Argentina, Mauricio Macri, and from Mexico, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon.

next to, France He expressed his “concern” on Tuesday after the decision TSJ Which confirmed his ineligibility MachadoAnd a two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, He urged the Maduro regime to respect Barbados Convention In order to hold free and transparent elections.

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “France expresses its concern after the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice, which confirmed the ineligibility of several political figures.” “France requests it Barbados Convention of October 17, 2023, relating to political rights and electoral guarantees, concluded between the two chambers Government And the Democratic Unity Platformare fully respected and implemented so that Presidential election From the second half of 2024 it may be Free and transparent“.

Government Emmanuel Macron He pointed out that the agreement between the Chavez regime and the opposition “is a An important step to end the crisisHe reiterated his “readiness to work, through the European Union, in favor of reaching an agreement.” An international mission to monitor the electionsAs stipulated in the Barbados Agreement.

(With information from EFE)