Forty Venezuelan organizations unite to achieve “free elections”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Forty Venezuelan opposition organizations announced this Wednesday the formation of a unitary platform to work for “free, fair and transparent” elections and thus find a way out of the crisis, for which they blame the ruler Nicolás Maduro, whom they label as “dictator”.

Through a manifesto, the forty organizations, among which stand out the most traditional ones such as Primero Justicia (PJ), Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), Voluntad Popular (VP), and Acción Democrática (AD), announced their commitment for the “reestablishment of popular sovereignty through the achievement of free elections”.

The manifesto was read by former opposition deputy Delsa Solórzono of the Encuentro Ciudadano party to announce the organizations’ decision that also had their representatives in the event.

After achieving victory in the 2015 legislative elections, the Venezuelan opposition formed a political platform whose parties soon began to show their differences, leading anti-Chavism to a split that today they intend to repair.

Since then, they announced several restructuring and organization processes to work again united and manage to remove President Nicolás Maduro from power, but none achieved their goal.

They have publicly acknowledged the differences between the political formations and their best-known leaders on the strategy to achieve the exit of the current president, and the smaller parties have complained because they consider that their proposals are not taken into account by the larger ones.

These forty organizations that are joining to work today announced that they understand that “unity” is “a strategic and irreplaceable value”.

“We commit ourselves to follow consensus mechanisms that encourage the deliberation, articulation, and coordinated action of all to achieve a political solution to the crisis that will lead to an electoral solution,” says the manifesto.

On the other hand, they aim to attend “urgently” to the “immense humanitarian drama,” the economic, social, and human rights crisis, as well as to work for the restitution of the constitutional order, which they consider was broken by Maduro.

They will seek to promote “national reconciliation”, enter anti-virus vaccines into the country, and get more international support for their struggle.

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who also participated in this event, also encouraged the organizations that still “sustain” Maduro to realize that with him, “there is no future.”

The opponent said that to have elections in Venezuela, you have to have conditions that, so far, he considers that there are none.

“We are fighting to participate with conditions,” he said.