Human Rights Office declares Maduro’s reelection illegitimate
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Office declares Maduro’s reelection as president of Venezuela totally illegitimate
HAVANA TIMES – Nicolas Maduro’s reelection as president of Venezuela is illegitimate, and, if inaugurated, the leader will be heading a de facto regime after January 10. This was the statement released on Tuesday, January 7, by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
“The political and human rights crisis in Venezuela is the result of the total cooptation of the state institutions on the part of a regime that seeks, above all, to maintain itself illegitimately in power,” the document asserted.
That cooptation “has facilitated the establishment of a de facto regime,” since the circumstances surrounding the election of July 28 imply, “a grave alteration of the Constitutional order.”
“It falls to the international community to remain vigilant in the face of new repressive escalations, and to activate all the diplomatic and institutional channels to push for the return of democracy” in Venezuela, reads part of the 87-page document.
January 10 will initiate a new six-year presidential term in Venezuela, and it’s expected that Nicolas Maduro will be the one sworn in, marking a third consecutive period in power. Despite much controversy and questioning, the electoral powers in Venezuela proclaimed him the winner of the July 28th election with 53% of the votes against 43% for his principal rival, opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
However, the voting results by polling place for this election were never officially presented, nor were the voting breakdowns by municipality or region. In contrast, the opposition party published their official copies of individual tally sheets from 85% of the polling places, showing Gonzalez to be the clear winner with 7,443,584 votes, or 67%, as compared to 3,385,155 for Maduro (30%).
The United States, Canada, several Latin American governments, and the majority of the European countries have recognized Gonzalez as the rightful winner of the election, and hence president-elect. These countries have announced that they will not be sending representatives to Maduro’s inauguration, unlike Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras and Mexico, who have announced that they will send delegations.
Gonzalez – exiled in Spain since September – is visiting several capitals of the Americas this week. He has announced his intention to return to Venezuela to assume the presidency, possibly leaving from the Dominican Republic on January 9th. Several former presidents of the region have offered to accompany Gonzalez on that trip.
The Venezuelan government, however, has stated that if Gonzalez so much as sets one foot in the country, he’ll be arrested and tried for treason and other crimes. Amid this tension, the preparations for Maduro’s inauguration are going forward with a strong presence of police and military security.
Maria Corina Machado, the principal opposition leader, is in hiding, but from her undisclosed location she has called on the population to go out on the streets in protest beginning on the 9th. Maduro’s party has called for their own marches and concentrations.
After Venezuela’s electoral council proclaimed Maduro the winner, the resulting protests were severely repressed. At least 25 people were killed, dozens were injured, and over 2,000 demonstrators were detained, including 150 minors.
The repression “included practices of State terrorism, aimed at instilling terror in the citizenry and silencing dissident voices,” according to the IACHR.
The report details a series of human rights violations, including “extra-judicial executions, short-term forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture, and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatments.”
Beginning before July 28, the Venezuelan government “implemented a planned strategy aimed at impeding the opposition’s political participation, hindering the development of a free, fair and competitive electoral match, and repressing the social protests provoked by the lack of electoral transparency and the denunciations of fraud.”
After the electoral events, notes the IACHR: “the violence increased, in response to protests against the fraud. Around 300 spontaneous demonstrations were repressed by the regime’s forces and civilian shock troops.”
Among its recommendations, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights called on those in pawer in Venezuela to immediately end the political persecution, the repression, and the arbitrary detentions, as well as to urgently free all those who have been arbitrarily detained.
Along the same lines, they urged the government to reestablish the Constitutional order and to reestablish the separation and independence of the public institutions; to publish the voting tally sheets from all the polling places; and to allow an independent audit of the election results, with the presence of international observers.
There is something fundamentally wrong with politics in general. The creme of the crop don’t necessarily rise to the top. History will tell us that from Hitler the infantry individual to Maduro the bus driver are from the same DNA. This blind ambition is what drives these delusional leaders. Then the people are blindly deceived they are the savior and get screwed later. The historical plot in every country is the same with screwed up leadership who pursue power to drive their gross incompetence. Cuba is a glaring example of jumping from one frying pan into another with change of leadership…things got worse.