Brasilia.-Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s top foreign affairs adviser, Celso Amorim, is promoting an extravagant solution to the crisis gripping Venezuela, which involves holding new elections suspected of having been manipulated by the Chavistas.
The president spoke of this possibility during the cabinet meeting and it was leaked to the Brazilian press. It would be a kind of “second round,” says Amorim, this time with the mediation of international organizations and the effective participation of foreign observers, who were not able to do so in the controversial elections of July 28.
The news raised doubts, especially because of the image cost it could bring to Lula. Diplomatic sources were quick to clarify to Clarín that “there is nothing of the sort. We continue with the position we have had since July 28, the regime must show the minutes and avoid appealing to the Supreme Court to validate the results,” they said. On Saturday, these sources warned that Brasilia would not recognize a ruling by the Court.
The influential daily Valor Económico, informed of Lula’s comments, consulted Amorim, who admitted that he brought “this idea to the president after hearing the suggestion of other international actors,” which he did not identify. He clarified that it is an informal proposal and “it is still in process” and has not been communicated to the other two partners of the troika in dialogue with Chavismo, Mexico and Colombia. In fact, the expected telephone call between presidents Lula, the Mexican Manuel López Obrador and the Colombian Gustavo Petro with the Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro, which was expected for this Monday, did not materialize. According to the special advisor, the conversation is still on the radar of the foreign ministries, but there is still no date.
The Valor Económico article states that Amorim said that this proposal should be implemented with a package of international counterparts. “This idea is not new, it has existed since the beginning of the problem,” he added. Similar proposals had been put forward by Hugo Chávez’s former minister, economist Víctor Álvarez, and the former head of justice for Chilean minister Gabriel Boric, Marcela Ríos Tobar.
But opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has already made it clear that she would not accept the annulment of the elections and their reruns. Nor is the regime likely to accept this, especially given its reluctance to accept conditions that would include a full opening of the election with observers free to act and without bans.
Amorim, who has been close to the Caracas regime, says that this alternative should include a “political amnesty,” presumably with respect to the opposition, and the “lifting of international sanctions. If we want to negotiate a package around these things, with the end of sanctions, it is possible to hold a kind of second round, with good international follow-up,” he insisted.
Diplomatic sources in the region considered this alternative absurd, particularly because countries allied to Brazil, including the Europeans, consider the 24,576 records distributed by the opposition as reliable, indicating a landslide victory for the dissident candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
Venezuela is under trade sanctions from the United States and the European Union, which do not recognize Maduro’s re-election, as do other Latin American countries, such as Chile and Argentina.
Amorim, in his strategy, places particular emphasis on the issue of sanctions, as a necessary tool for this new game he proposes.
He argues that if there were new elections, it would be essential for the European Union to lift sanctions in order to send international observers to the possible new elections. The main impasse, in his opinion, would be the agreement between both Maduro and the opposition leaders. “Both declare themselves winners and do not back down,” he observed.
Critics of this peculiar initiative argue that the only way to resolve the contradiction is through table-by-table and ballot-box-by-ballot-box records that determine the real winner of the election. The regime has not yet presented these documents. The dialogue-minded troika also proposes that there be international and neutral supervision of these data.
According to the same sources, a behind-the-scenes dialogue between the foreign ministers of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia is continuing for a negotiated solution to the crisis. This coming Thursday, the Brazilian, Mauro Vieira, will meet with his Colombian counterpart, Luis Gilberto Murillo, in Bogotá. Vieira will stop in Colombia upon returning from the Dominican Republic, for the inauguration of the re-elected president Luis Abinader.
The Venezuelan crisis has escalated in Brazil as a domestic issue in light of the upcoming municipal elections that operate as a midterm exam in the giant country. The opposition, led by former president Jair Bolsonaro, is using this situation to combat Lula for his closeness to Maduro.
The O’Globo newspaper portal noted in this regard that the president’s allies understand that Brazil’s position in the conflict could negatively impact Lula’s popularity at a time when the latest GenialQuaest and Ipec polls show a first increase in the PT’s popularity in 2024.Clarín.
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2024-08-17 00:52:33
