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Venezuela: Maduro pardoned more than a hundred opponents

2020-09-01T04:24:21.030Z


The most emblematic figure is Roberto Marrero, Juan Guaido's right-hand man and chief of staff. The latter denounces pardons used "as a bargaining chip".


Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pardoned more than a hundred opponents, including deputies and collaborators of opposition leader Juan Guaido, "

in order to promote national reconciliation

", to three months of legislative elections that the opposition calls for. to boycott.

The government uses these pardons "

as a bargaining chip

" to "

legitimize a farce

", that is to say the legislative elections of December 6 that the opposition intends to boycott, reacted Juan Guaido.

"

We do not pardon the innocent or those who have immunity

."

Read also: Venezuela: Maduro beheads Guaido's party

"

A presidential pardon is granted to the citizens mentioned below,

" Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez said earlier, reading a list of names during a press conference broadcast by state television.

In this long list of 110 names are detained opponents.

Others are free or in exile.

No mercy for Juan Guaido

The most emblematic figure on this list is Roberto Marrero, Juan Guaido's right-hand man and chief of staff.

He was arrested for "

terrorism

" and jailed in March 2019, two months after Mr. Guaido declared himself interim president of Venezuela in January of that year.

Marrero was released on Monday evening, along with other opponents such as parliamentarians Gilber Caro and Renzo Prieto, fiercely anti-Maduro, or lawyer Antonia Turbay.

Since January 2019, Juan Guaido, whom nearly sixty countries recognized by the United States as interim head of state, has been trying to oust Nicolas Maduro from power.

He believes that the socialist president, who enjoys the support of Cuba, China and Russia, is a “

usurper

” after his “

fraudulent

re-election

in the 2018 presidential election.

Juan Guaido is not among those pardoned.

The Venezuelan justice, which the opposition accuses of being under the orders of power, pursues him in more than half a dozen cases.

He is notably accused of having wanted to overthrow Nicolas Maduro during a call for an uprising of the army - which had no effect - on April 30, 2019, but he is free to move around at present.

Read also: Venezuela: Juan Guaido in the process of marginalization

Some pardoned opponents have been sentenced or are being prosecuted without being imprisoned.

This is the case, for example, of Henry Ramos Allup, a figure of the opposition.

Others are in exile, like the deputy Luis Florido.

Freddy Guevara, who belongs to Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), the party of Juan Guaido, has been a refugee in the Chilean embassy in Caracas since November 2017. He had been at the forefront of the anti-government demonstrations organized this year. there, where more than 125 people had been killed.

Maduro in search of "

legitimacy

"

The announcement of the presidential pardon comes three months before the legislative elections of December 6 that Juan Guaido and about thirty opposition parties plan to boycott.

They judge that their organization by the Chavist authorities is "

fraudulent

".

On the government side, Maduro said on Sunday that he intended to support measures that lead Venezuela to "

deep dialogue

" and "

reconciliation

" before the poll.

But, judges analyst Felix Seijas of the Delphos polling institute, the pardon he has just granted has "

as its very first objective the legitimization

" of the elections.

The idea being that the "

heavyweights of the opposition

" who called for their boycott are finally ready to "

participate

".

The external factor also played a role, notes lawyer Rafael Alvarez Loscher, director of the IURISCORP law firm.

Venezuela needs "

oxygen

" and "

rebuilding bridges

" with the international community.

Faced with increasingly draconian sanctions, particularly from the United States, Nicolas Maduro “

needs capital, contracts with international organizations, loans and debt restructuring

,” underlines Mr. Alvarez Loscher.

Venezuela needs money,

” he said.

Hence a "

facade legitimacy

" which would result from the presidential pardon.

Besides the political crisis, Venezuela is going through the worst economic crisis in its recent history.

Hyperinflation topped 9,000% last year and gasoline and drug shortages are recurrent.

And the medical community is very concerned about the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in this country of 30 million inhabitants whose health system is on its knees.

Officially, nearly 46,000 cases of Covid-19 have been identified and 381 deaths linked to the disease, but the opposition and NGOs like Human Rights Watch question these figures.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-09-01

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