ALBA rejects Panama’s call to discuss Venezuela’s post-electoral crisis

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) has rejected the proposal by the President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, to hold a regional summit of presidents to address the crisis in Venezuela, following allegations of fraud in the presidential elections, the official result of which ratified Nicolás Maduro as head of state.

“No country has the right to ‘try out actions’ that are not within the framework of respect for the self-determination of peoples,” said ALBA – led by Chavista and former Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza – through a statement, in which it described as “interventionist” the call from Panama that, in addition, has “intentions of destabilization and coup aims.”

Mulino, who proposed the summit on Tuesday, joined the recognition of opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate president-elect of Venezuela on August 2, after the official result declared Maduro the winner in elections that Panama – as well as other countries – consider “fraudulent.”

Countries

ALBA – made up of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Dominica and Saint Lucia – invited countries, especially those in the Latin American and Caribbean region, “to respect the decisions and mechanisms of each State and its legitimate institutions.”

The group also called on the international community to “reject this type of interventionist action,” while reaffirming its support for Maduro, who was elected in the presidential elections according to “the will of the Venezuelan people.”

For its part, the opposition coalition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) claims that González Urrutia obtained the majority of votes, after disclosing “83.5%” of the electoral records that – they insist – show this victory by a wide margin over Maduro.

Ten days after the elections, Venezuela’s electoral body has not published the minutes certifying Maduro’s victory, as required by law, and has left the process of “certifying” the official result in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), at the request of the president.

Havana / Caracas / EFE