Paraguayan President Santiago Peña said on Monday that the political and social situation in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba should be a cause of “great concern” for the international community.
“A region that has been characterized by peace and freedom, but today our inter-American system is suffering from what is happening in the sister nation of Venezuela, what is happening in Nicaragua, what is happening in Cuba. It must be a cause of great concern for the entire international community,” Peña said in a statement after meeting with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves in San José.
Peña, who made an official visit to Costa Rica on Monday, recalled that Paraguay experienced “the longest dictatorship in South America” and that for this reason “it knows the debts we have had with our people.”
“We cannot repeat these injustices. That is why we must defend Paraguay’s position in favor of a free, sovereign and independent Latin America, but above all one that respects human rights, freedoms and the free exercise of politics,” said Peña.
In a joint statement issued after the bilateral meeting, Chaves and Peña expressed their concern about the political and social situation in Venezuela and expressed their solidarity with the Venezuelan people.
Both demanded “unconditional respect for the popular will expressed at the polls, reiterating the importance of guaranteeing democracy, human rights, the right to peaceful protest and the protection of life and personal integrity.”
Venezuela is experiencing a post-election crisis with opposition protests, in which more than twenty people have died, and repression by law enforcement forces that have arrested thousands of people.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which has yet to publish the voting records despite growing calls for transparency inside and outside Venezuela, declared the re-election of President Nicolás Maduro on the same day of the elections.
The Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) published more than 80% of the voting records table by table on the Internet to prove its victory by a wide margin and claims that the winner was its candidate Edmundo González.
Last Friday, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved by consensus a resolution demanding that Venezuelan electoral authorities publish the minutes of the July 28 elections.
That Friday, the European Union and 22 other countries called for the “immediate publication of all the original minutes” of the elections and the “impartial” and “independent” verification of the results of the elections in Venezuela.
Caracas / EFE
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2024-08-21 12:07:02
