More than 20 former presidents of several countries -Costa Rica among them- condemned the electoral fraud in Venezuela this Sunday, when Nicolás Maduro was re-elected president of that country with more than 67% of the votes.
Through a document, the former Heads of State and Government of the declarations of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA) condemned the democratic falsification that there was in that country, and they asked for the suspension of Venezuela in the Organization of American States, among other things.
When convened and carried out, on the orders of an unconstitutionally constituted constituent assembly, formed in contravention of the principle of direct and secret universal suffrage, a sham presidential election, under an electoral system fully controlled by the same dictatorship: with the sole purpose of covering up the extension of Nicolás Maduro and his de facto exercise of the Presidency of the Republic,”
states the document.
In addition, they pointed out that the context in which the elections took place is even more serious, with acts of torture and unusual violence by government and military authorities in the face of the accomplice silence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The former rulers called on the international community and requested the suspension of Venezuela’s participation in the OAS, pursuant to Article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and urged one of the member states of the Rome Statute, to refer to the International Criminal Court and report on the crimes against humanity by the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.
Finally, they demanded that
the humanitarian assistance of residents and migrants be fully resolved, the urgent release of political prisoners and measures of protection of life and personal integrity for the leaders of the real opposition that still remains in Venezuela.”
The presidents who signed are; Oscar Arias, Laura Chinchilla, Rafael Ángel Calderón and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez from C osta Rica; José María Aznar and Felipe González from Spain, Mireya Moscoso and Nicolás Ardito from Panama, as well as the Colombians Belisario Betancur, Andrés Pastrana and Álvaro Uribe.
In addition, Fernando de la Rúa from Argentina; Felipe Calderón and Vicente Fox from Mexico; Alfredo Cristiani from El Salvador, Eduardo Frei and Ricardo Lagos from Chile also signed; as well as Osvaldo Hurtado and Jamil Mahuad from Ecuador, Luis Alberto Lacalle and Julio María Sanguinetti from Uruguay; the Bolivian Jorge Tuto Quiroga, and the Paraguayan Juan Carlos Wasmosy.