2023-07-04 10:04:21
The European Union (EU) expressed its “deep concern” on Monday regarding the disqualification of candidates for public office in Venezuela, such as that of the opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado, disqualified from holding any public office for a period of 15 years. .
The disqualification, imposed in 2015 for alleged administrative irregularities when she was a deputy (2011-2014), initially had a duration of 12 months, but on Friday the Comptroller General notified that the sanction had been extended. The entity argued that it continued with the investigations.
In an official note, the office of the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, expressed on Monday his “deep concern regarding the decisions aimed at preventing members of the opposition from exercising their fundamental political rights, as has been the case of María Corina Machado and other political figures”.
For its part, the Nicolás Maduro regime defended the decision of the Comptroller General and asked for non-interference in its internal affairs. “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects Borrell’s statement,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The EU, which sent an observation mission to Venezuela at the end of 2021, said that this team presented 23 recommendations for the country to improve its electoral processes.
One of them, he recalled, proposed “suppressing the prerogative of the Comptroller General’s Office to deprive citizens of their fundamental right to stand for election through an administrative procedure and without timely notification, which impacts the right to defense.”
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