Venezuelan elections should have the widest presence of observers

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira insisted on Wednesday that the elections to be held in Venezuela on July 28 should have the “widest presence of international observers” in order to guarantee their “legitimacy.”

According to EFE, Vieira appeared before the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and, when referring to the Venezuelan electoral process, stressed that Brazil remains “totally committed to the Barbados Accords,” agreed upon by the administration of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition with the endorsement of several countries.

These agreements, which included Brazil as one of the witnesses and sponsors, established minimum requirements for free and transparent elections, but have been denounced by the opposition, which accuses the Maduro administration of violating them by imposing difficulties on the registration of its candidates.

The agreement reached in Barbados at the end of last year also included the presence of a broad representation of international observers at the elections, but Venezuela recently withdrew an invitation to a European Union (EU) mission.

Vieira did not mention this veto, saying that missions from various multinational organizations have been invited and stressed that, in the opinion of the Brazilian government, representation should be as broad as possible.

“We consider the broad presence of observers as provided for in the Barbados Agreements to be very important,” because these elections “will be an opportunity to overcome the crisis and normalize the situation (in Venezuela) at the internal and external levels,” he said.

He also said that “whoever wins the election will need the greatest legitimacy, accepted by all” political actors, whether from Venezuela itself or abroad.

Brazil has already expressed its “concern” about the difficulties faced by the opposition in registering candidates, which has received a harsh response from the government.

These obstacles were overcome with the registration of former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia as the presidential candidate of the largest opposition coalition, following the veto by the electoral authorities of the platform’s leading figure, María Corina Machado.