Former presidents condemn accusations by Venezuelan prosecutors against Maria Corina Machado

Miami, Jul 30 (EFE).- Former heads of state and government participating in the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA) on Tuesday condemned the accusations made by the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office against opposition leader María Corina Machado, while They hold Nicolas Maduro’s “regime” responsible for the “freedom, life and personal integrity” of the anti-Chavez activist.

Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Monday he would investigate an alleged plot to tamper with the results of Sunday’s election, blaming the opposition leader.

In the statement, IDEA criticizes the opening of an investigation against Machado, which also includes Edmundo González Urrutia, the presidential candidate of the majority opposition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), who defeated Maduro with 73% of the votes counted, according to data handled by the Venezuelan opposition.

Corina Machado indicated that the PUD has in its possession 73% of the ballots issued in the presidential elections, which – she assured – give victory to González Urrutia with an “overwhelming” difference (between 20 and 35 points of advantage) in the elections, even though the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro as the winner.

In this regard, Saab said that there was an “attack on the electrical system and a computer attack against the data transmission system of the National Electoral Council (CNE)”, which delayed the reading of the final bulletin.

“We find unacceptable the prosecution of the key leader Corina Machado, who supports the candidate González Urrutia, at the request of the president of the National Electoral Council in concert with the Attorney General of the Republic (Venezuela),” denounces IDEA, which demands that the Electoral Power deliver the minutes that support the electoral results announced last Sunday.

He also warns that the Maduro “regime” has imposed a “criminalization of politics” that seeks to hinder the “defense of popular sovereignty expressed at the polls by González and Machado.”

A behaviour that, furthermore, “contributes very negatively to the credibility of the electoral results presented by the Electoral Power.”

The twenty-seven former heads of state and government who signed the declaration also hold the Maduro regime responsible for “the persecution and repression by the military and police against the Venezuelan people that takes place while they are democratically demonstrating in defense of their votes.”

At least six people have died and hundreds have been injured in Venezuela in protests that have broken out in recent hours in rejection of the official results of the National Electoral Council (CNE) that proclaimed Maduro as re-elected president.

IDEA applauds the initiative of the governments of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States of America, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay to “submit to the consideration of the Permanent Council of the OAS to evaluate the electoral situation in Venezuela.”

In addition, it urges the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to adopt the necessary precautionary measures against the Maduro regime for the “protection of its alleged victims.”

The declaration was signed by former presidents of Costa Rica Oscar Arias, Rafael Angel Calderon, Jose Maria Figueres, Miguel Angel Rodriguez and Luis Guillermo Solis; of Spain Jose Maria Aznar and Mariano Rajoy; of Mexico Vicente Fox; of Colombia Ivan Duque, Andres Pastrana and Alvaro Uribe; and of Argentina Mauricio Macri.

It was also signed by former presidents Mario Abdo Benítez, Federico Franco and Juan Carlos Wasmosy (Paraguay); Nicolás Ardito, Mireya Moscoso and Ernesto Pérez Valladares (Panama); Alfredo Cristiani (El Salvador); Eduardo Frei (Chile); Osvaldo Hurtado, Guillermo Lasso, Jamil Mahuad and Lenin Moreno (Ecuador); Hipólito Mejía (Dominican Republic); and Carlos Mesa and Jorge Tuto Quiroga (Bolivia).

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