MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

LatAm countries concerned over harassment and persecution of opponents in Venezuela

Maduro needs to come to terms with the thought that he will be defeated, Abrams said

Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Paraguay Friday signed a declaration expressing these countries' concern over the mounting “harassment and persecution” the Venezuelan regime of President Nicolás Maduro is exerting on opposition leaders ahead of the July 28 elections which most pollsters foresee he is bound to lose.

 The signatories also concurred that the electoral process should “represent an opportunity to bring peace, unity, progress and democracy” to Venezuela.

The five nations have been following “with concern the harassment and persecution against leaders and supporters of the Venezuelan opposition, as well as against members of civil society, including the arbitrary detention of numerous figures related to the opposition, all of which threatens the realization of a legitimate electoral process,” read the document which also demands “the immediate cessation of harassment, persecution, and repression against political and social activists of the opposition, as well as the release of all political prisoners.”

According to the joint statement, the “democratic principles, as well as the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Venezuelans” are at stake.

This declaration came after the Bolivarian administration's recent spree of violent acts against opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia. In addition, Maduro accused Argentine President Javier Milei of wanting to sabotage the elections. He also called the Libertarian politician a “malparido,” which roughly translates as “bastard.”

”They want a hecatomb, a tragedy, to shout suspension of the elections, and the gringos would come out, Milei would come out, (Daniel) Noboa (president of Ecuador) would come out, the rightwing, to suspend the elections. I tell you, we are prepared. Nerves of steel, calm, and sanity. And rain, thunder, or lightning, on July 28, there will be presidential elections in Venezuela. Nobody is going to sabotage them,“ Maduro said.

Maduro has also spoken this week about a ”bloodbath“ and a ”civil war“ if he does not win while Machado has repeatedly decried sabotage attempts against the opposition's campaign.

In view of what seems to be Maduro's imminent defeat, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Elliott Abrams suggested Maduro should be offered amnesty to accept his fate. Abrams likened the situation to that of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in the late 1980s. ”In 1988, the United States entered into negotiations with Panama's then dictator, Manuel Noriega. Noriega had been indicted in Miami for drug trafficking and we wanted him out of office and out of Panama,“ Abrams recalled in an opinion article.

”To get Noriega out and return Panama to democracy, we offered him a deal: we would drop the indictment if he would leave,” recounted Abrams, who at the time was undersecretary of state for Latin America in the President Ronald Reagan administration.

Noriega eventually refused all deals and was overthrown by force. Extradited to the US he was sentenced to 40 years in jail.