The United States announced this Saturday that it will review the lifting of sanctions on Venezuela agreed to three months ago in exchange for respecting the opposition and holding the elections with guarantees after Chavismo, through a Supreme Court, will ratify on Friday the ban imposed on María Corina Machado from participating in the presidential elections.
Machado, according to polls, is the favorite to win those elections, far ahead of President Nicolás Maduro.
The State Department issued a statement in which it objects that the judicial decision - which also harms Henrique Capriles Radonski - "is inconsistent with the content of the Barbados agreements," where an approximate date for elections and the authorization of certain sanctioned politicians.
“The United States is currently reconsidering the sanctions policy, in accordance with the development of this policy aimed at harming opposition leaders and civilian leaders,” the text reads below.
Gerardo Blyde, head of the opposition delegation in the political negotiations with Chavismo, and spokesperson for the Unitary Platform, has denounced that, with the ruling of the Supreme Court, “the violation of the Barbados agreements” by the Government has been confirmed. of Maduro.
Machado was, by a very wide margin, the winning candidate in the primary citizen elections held on October 22 by the Venezuelan opposition, organized to choose a unitary candidate to participate in the 2024 presidential elections, and comfortably leads the preferences in the polls of opinion, tripling Nicolás Maduro.
“We are not leaving the table,” said Blyde, seeking not to take things towards the irreversible.
“We are denouncing that the agreements are being violated.”
Blyde announced that they will complain to the Norwegian delegation, mediator in the process, about the non-compliance.
Most well-known Venezuelan opposition politicians have issued statements supporting Machado as the elected leader of the democratic currents.
The Chavista leadership, in particular Diodado Cabello, has been particularly sarcastic and emphatic about the impossibility of the candidate's participation.
Blyde read the content of the Barbados agreements and began to list the inconsistencies of Chavismo with the content of what was signed, “from the escalation of repression, to the procedure to prevent candidates from participating,” he added.
“The procedure to apply the law is not a simple act and inform, where do I go and file an appeal and that's it,” she said in relation to the TSJ ruling that ratifies Machado's impediment to participate.
“You have to admit the appeal, admit the evidence, you have to let the administrative file be seen and allow the right to defense.
“That’s the procedure.”
The political leader asked the international community for help (“Macrón, Petro, Lula”) to save the Barbados agreements from stalemate.
“It is the most important political document that we have signed in this political crisis in two decades.
Even the most critical adversaries use the Barbados agreements as a parameter to evaluate the process.
To reach the points of the Memorandum of Understanding, we spent months discussing each point, analyzing options for the electoral route, which is the commitment of the Unitary Platform,” added the opponent.
Regarding political prisoners, Blyde denounced the rotating mechanism that the ruling party opens after reaching agreements: “Some political prisoners are released so that others can enter later.”
And she confirmed very firmly that Machado is and will unfailingly be the presidential candidate of the democratic forces grouped in the Unitary Platform (clear majority and hegemonic space of the anti-Chavista camp).
Blyde distanced himself from the recent complaints made by Jorge Rodríguez, regarding the dismantling of a military plot against Nicolás Maduro: “The only way this delegation has, the only approach, is the organization of transparent presidential elections.”
“We have only one candidate.
He was not from the Unitary Platform, but our consultation was open, he competed and won by a wide margin, in a clean process, which had high participation, and which was recognized as valid and legitimate by all the parties and leaders who were involved.
Half an hour after Blyde's press call was made to establish the position of the journalists, the pro-government authorities offered the reporters a free transportation service to the Federal Legislative Palace, headquarters of the National Assembly, to hear the corresponding response from Jorge Rodríguez , head of the Chavista delegation, summoned for an hour later.
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