“Free the Opponents”. The Davila and de Grazia Cases and the Silence of the Left –

In Venezuela there is chaos with the purges of President Nicolas Maduro after the farcical elections, in the silence of the Italian left. “The Italian Government continues to follow the situation with great concern” in the South American country, “in close coordination with international partners”, reads a note from Palazzo Chigi. “Italy asks the Venezuelan authorities to respect the rights of all citizens and to proceed with the release of all political opponents, firmly condemning any threat or deprivation of civil liberties”, it concludes. The most sensational cases are those of the MP Williams Davila elected in Italy in the foreign constituency and the MP Americo de Grazia, opponents of Maduro with Italian-Venezuelan citizenship. “Mr. Gil, we are writing to you, despite not recognizing your position as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, in your capacity as a representative of the violent and bloody Regime led by the criminal Nicolás Maduro, who has repeatedly violated your Constitution, usurping power and committing all kinds of violations of the democratic, civil and human rights of the Venezuelan people,” wrote Alessandro Bertoldi, Executive Director of the Milton Friedman Institute, in a letter sent today to the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yván Eduardo Gil Pinto, through the Venezuelan Embassy in Rome.

The letter reconstructs the story. “On August 8, Hon. Williams Davila was kidnapped in Caracas by armed individuals and taken to an unknown location in cars without license plates. Mr. Davila is a member of the Scientific Committee of our Institute, is a European citizen and enjoys the international protection of the Latin American Committee for Human Rights. This also happened shortly after Davila gave an interview to the Italian agency Adnkronos in which he appealed to the Italian Government, asking for Italy’s support in supporting the request for transparency in the electoral process in Venezuela. We hereby denounce your disappearance and that of Hon. Americo de Grazia (Italian-Venezuelan), there has been no news of either of them for over 24 hours and in both cases the abusive Venezuelan authorities that you represent, who have the exclusive right to use force in Venezuela, have not provided any news on what happened and on the fate of the two deputies”.

Furthermore, Davila is in poor health and requires daily therapy. The institute also reiterates that “our protest and that of all the democratic institutions with which we are in contact will continue until the release of the two kidnapped Deputies and that you will be held responsible for their safety in every place, up to individual indictment before the International Criminal Court, of which we will be eager supporters. Any further support of yours for criminal and violent policies will only worsen your personal position before justice”.