CNE President denounces “media campaign” against the elections

Caracas, Jul 24 (EFE).- The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, Elvis Amoroso, denounced on Wednesday that there is a media campaign against the elections this Sunday, in which the country’s president for the next six-year term will be chosen, for which reason he asked the Attorney General’s Office to observe these events that constitute, he said, a crime.

“Now they are attacking hard, they have been doing this for several weeks, the international media has dedicated itself to the CNE, to the Venezuelans and to the Armed Forces,” said Amoroso, during the act of deploying security forces to protect the votes, without detailing which media statements he is referring to.

He considered that institutions cannot continue to “tolerate these insults -which he also did not explain- from the media,” which, he denounced, receive money “stolen from Venezuela and the product of drug trafficking.”

“We will continue to monitor what comes from outside and we will continue to monitor the media here that will give a boost to what is said there. We will observe, Attorney General, (because) that is a crime,” he said.

Although he blamed the international media for this “paid campaign,” he criticized national newspapers, radio stations and television channels for giving “front page coverage” to “anything they say against” Venezuela from abroad.

“They are using that (dirty) money so that foreign media can carry out a campaign of destruction against the people of Venezuela, seeking to hinder these elections (…) and I also tell the national media, they must also be serious,” he stressed.

Amoroso, who was a Chavista activist for more than 20 years, said that local media outlets that spread “lies” also become “accomplices of the people who seek to destroy this country, this beautiful process,” referring to the elections in which Nicolás Maduro will seek a third consecutive six-year term.

The CNE complaint was signed by the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, and by the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, who also participated in the event, without specifying what alleged insults or specific information they refer to.

Over the past week, Maduro has been campaigning against international news agencies and various foreign media outlets as “hitmen of lies,” while accusing them of wanting to “taint” Sunday’s election, in which he will face nine contenders, including opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.

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