A group of politicians warns of “a dictatorial and anti-historical trend” in Venezuela

The repression of recent weeks in Venezuela is encouraging a new current of opinion against Chavismo.

A group of intellectuals, politicians and academics, united in what they call the Latin American Reflection Table, has signed a document that warns of the “dark panorama” that looms “over the future of Venezuelan democracy,” warning of the risks of a “dictatorial and antihistorical tendency.”

The more than 60 signatories, led by the former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, consider the expulsion from Caracas of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the arrest of activist Rocío San Miguel, expert in security and military intelligence.

San Miguel has been imprisoned in Helicoide, the prison of the Venezuelan intelligence service.

Her prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, places her at the center of a conspiracy that aimed to carry out a coup d'état and assassinate Nicolás Maduro.

However, the evidence presented so far by the prosecuting body is not strong enough to suspect the activist.

For now, the distorted voice of a soldier who points his finger at her and maps with which the overthrow of Hugo Chávez's successor was supposedly being prepared has been made public.

One of the functions of San Miguel, according to this version, was to broadcast the assault on Chavista power on Twitter in real time.

The international community has viewed with suspicion the accusations against the activist, which occur after weeks of arbitrary arrests of politicians and members of civil society, but also of ordinary citizens, such as a man who recorded the recently released Álex Saab with his cell phone and was arrested.

Then it was the turn of the UN High Commissioner, who in a tweet criticized that San Miguel had been subjected to a “forced disappearance,” since after she was intercepted by the military intelligence service it was not reported that she had been detained or where he was.

Neither her lawyer nor her family could contact her for days.

The matter so upset the Chavista leaders that they expelled all of the entity's officials.

The Helicoide in Caracas, on February 14. Miguel Gutiérrez (EFE)

“For the rest of Latin America, what happens in Venezuela is no stranger, especially if it confronts the United Nations and the full validity of human rights.

We have reached a year where a presidential election is approaching, but the tendency assumed by the Venezuelan government against opponents and critics of its policies anticipates zero recognition of the results of that electoral consultation.

President Maduro's government has broken the commitments agreed in Barbados between the ruling party and the opposition," reads the text made public by the Latin American Reflection Roundtable, which also includes the former president of Bolivia, Eduardo Rodríguez, or the former Colombian presidential candidate, Sergio Fajardo.

“Venezuelan democracy,” the writing continues, “will only recover the path towards a condition of respect in the world if its citizens can cast their vote in a scenario of full validity of human rights and political freedoms where plurality is effective.” .

The group highlights that the deficiencies under which the Venezuelan people live "are evident."

Food, they say, is precarious and poverty has increased, which has caused the great exodus of Venezuelans to other countries, such as the case of Colombia, which has received two million.

“The collaborators of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have been there to detect the reality and from those truths contribute to designing the government's plans to overcome them.

Expelling them for doing their job only expresses political myopia and authoritarian obstinacy in maintaining power, above a joint view as a nation on the best ways to get out of the crisis," they add.

Intellectuals appeal to the Brasilia Consensus, a South American integration mechanism, of which Venezuela is a part, which aims to strengthen ties between neighboring countries beyond the ideology of their governments, which in the past has meant putting projects on hold. common.

In his opinion, the recent announcements by the Maduro Government go “in the opposite direction.”

“This requires greater efforts from governments, political forces and the regional community to ensure that this dictatorial and anti-historical trend is not consolidated.”

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