Venezuela Election: Gonzalez to Fight Corruption if He Wins
Opposition candidate warns he will be strict with the endemic evil
“We will be uncompromising with any form of corruption. The Venezuelan people deserve a decent government,” said the former ambassador.
HAVANA TIMES – The presidential candidate of Venezuela’s main opposition, Edmundo Gonzalez, warned this Thursday that he will be uncompromising with corruption in Venezuela, an issue he considers one of the country’s “urgent” matters, should he win the July 28 elections, for which he is the favorite according to most polls.
“We will be uncompromising with any form of corruption. The Venezuelan people deserve a decent government,” said the former ambassador, who is the flagbearer of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD).
In a video shared on Instagram, he explained his plan to implement “strict accountability and audit mechanisms in all state institutions,” after 25 years of Chavista governments in which, he denounced, “everything has been stolen.”
“Corruption not only robs us of our resources but also our hope and our future. I am committed to working for you with transparency and honesty,” continued the 74-year-old former diplomat.
Gonzalez assured that his public and private life are his “best calling cards” to address this issue and commit to “fighting this evil that has caused so much harm” to the South American country.
In 2023, the Attorney General’s Office dismantled a corruption network within the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa). The operation resulted in the arrest of several government officials for an embezzlement that the NGO Transparencia Venezuela estimates at $16 billion US dollars, although the authorities never made the figure public.
González, supported by the popular opposition leader María Corina Machado, will face nine other candidates in the July 28 elections, including the incumbent, Nicolas Maduro, who will seek a third consecutive six-year term.