Brazil Calls for Rejection of Support for Venezuelan Elections

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil yesterday urged the international community to refrain from supporting the legislative elections in Venezuela called by Nicolás Maduro‘s “dictatorial regime,” given the “potential crimes against humanity,” disclosed by the United Nations (UN).

“Given the report’s content, Brazil considers that a regime like Maduro’s has no capacity or legitimacy to call or conduct a clean and fair electoral process, and thus the parliamentary elections called by the dictatorship for next December should not be supported by the international community,” stated yesterday’s release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In question is a report released on Wednesday by the UN, which identifies the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, the Ministers of the Interior and Defense, and high-ranking military commanders, police, and intelligence services as among those responsible for human rights violations so grave that, in certain cases, they represent crimes against humanity.

According to the investigation, the most common crimes committed by the security forces since 2014 have been extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and torture, directed at three particular groups: demonstrators, opposition members or those known as such, and alleged criminals.

“Brazil considers that the work conducted by the Fact-Checking Mission greatly contributes to the accountability of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorial regime, which continues to stifle democracy and oppress the Venezuelan people. The Brazilian government urges that the 65 recommendations in the report be observed,” indicated the Itamaraty.

Brazil further said it hopes the report will mobilize the entire international community to strive for “the extinction of Maduro’s dictatorial regime and the liberation of Venezuela”.

“In particular, Brazil hopes that the countries that still support the dictatorship will withdraw it and start working for the good of the Venezuelan people, according to the principles inscribed in the United Nations Charter, such as respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the self-determination of peoples – recalling that this self-determination belongs precisely to the peoples, and not to dictatorships that may oppress them,” the text adds.

The next legislative elections in Venezuela are scheduled for December 6th, when the Venezuelan government hopes to renew the National Assembly, where the opposition is in the majority and which is presided by opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

However, 37 organizations, including the four largest opposition parties (Acción Democrática, Primera Justicia, Vontad Popular, and Um Nuevo Tempo), have announced that they will not take part in the legislative elections, which they expect to be “a fraud”.

The Itamaraty press release comes at a time when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on a four-day trip to South America, which will bring him to Brazil, specifically to the state of Roraima on the border with Venezuela.

The American delegation will also visit Surinam, Guyana, and Colombia, countries close to Venezuela. In Brazilian territory, Pompeo will meet Venezuelan refugees in the country.

The Brazilian program to assist Venezuelan immigrants, which on Friday Pompeo will learn about, is nearing its end in Brazil, given that the government of Jair Bolsonaro plans to end it in 2021, as the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGR) announced yesterday.

According to the body, the Ministry of Defense intends to allocate only 25 percent of the current budget and close the program in late 2021, leaving social assistance actions under the responsibility of local governments, civil society, and international organizations.

Official data show that since the beginning of the migration crisis, over 264,000 Venezuelans have entered and remained in Brazil, of which over 40,000 were direct beneficiaries of the “Operação Acolhida” government program, which provided new life opportunities for immigrants in various regions of Brazil.

On Twitter, Bolsonaro stated that “Operação Acolhida continues”, providing no further details and with no direct reference to the PGR’s announcement.