The president of the CNE rejected the relief of personal sanctions from the EU

The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, rejected this Monday the lifting of the personal sanction of the European Union (EU), after the bloc announced this benefit for him and other people related to the electoral body.

The EU Council decided to temporarily suspend the travel restrictions imposed on Amoroso and three former members of the CNE, in order to facilitate the organisation of “inclusive and competitive” presidential elections on 28 July, EU Foreign Affairs spokesman Peter Stano explained to EFE.

In response to this, Amoroso demanded, in front of the press, the total lifting of all sanctions imposed by the EU and other countries of the world, considering that these negatively affect the development and recovery of the country.

In this regard, Amoroso opposed “the European Union’s attempts to pretend to international public opinion” that it is “proceeding to lift coercive and unilateral sanctions.”

He said he would not accept the EU’s offer, considering it immoral and contrary to his “civic values,” and urged the EU, as well as the United States and the United Kingdom, “to proceed with the lifting of all sanctions” imposed against Venezuela.

He added that “the world is aware” that the sanctions “have caused irreparable damage to children, young people, and the elderly” and that “thousands of them have died” due to “the blockade imposed that has prevented access to medicines for patients with cancer, diabetes, and other pathologies.”

Ivan Gil criticized the EU

For his part, the Foreign Minister of the Republic, Iván Gil, criticized the European Union for having lifted sanctions only against some CNE officials, in an action that the official described as “deceptive.”

“Some members of the National Electoral Council have been deceitfully removed from the list of those sanctioned, in order to supposedly send a signal of good faith or relief, and we say outright that we reject that position,” the foreign minister said.

“The Venezuelan State is a single State, it cannot be fragmented, it cannot be said: ‘I sanction these officials and not these, for the same reason’, simply to send a signal to the world: the European Union is now a block that has complied with international law. Sanctions simply should not exist, they are illegal and illegitimate,” he added.