And the European Union election observers mission in Venezuela is a “gift” to Nicolas Maduro ‘s regime.
Most likely, yes. And the gesture is not appreciated by the United States.
On November 21, around 100 experts will follow Venezuela’s regional elections on the spot. International delegations had been banned from following the electoral process for 15 years, but an agreement by the Venezuelan regime reached with Brussels allowed for the opening. Some experts fear that this presence could confer international legitimacy on a vote that is not fulfilled with the principles of transparency, freedom and equality.
The Venezuelan vote takes place in an environment that is anything but democratic. Recently, the Supreme Court (which responds to Maduro’s wishes) incapacitated the leaders of the main opposition parties, and arrested many potential candidates. Free access to independent media in Venezuela is a chimera.
As if that were not enough with the authoritarianism of the socialist government, even within the opposing front there are dangerous clashes. Support for the opposition leader recognized by the international community, Juan Guaido , is being lost due to the lack of progress and struggles between opposing groups. Three of the four main opposition parties oppose US efforts to support Guaido for another year, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
Furthermore, the alleged agreement between Venezuela and the European Union seems to irritate the United States. Joe Biden ‘s government has changed the tone, but keeps Donald Trump ‘s hard line , so it looks suspiciously at the European strategy on Venezuela.
According to the Washington Post, the commitment of Josep Borrell , High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, could “lead to a relatively clean election day for cameras (and EU observers), even if that is, granting a fief or two to the less radical members of the opposition ”.
A senior US official told the Washington Post that his concern “is that on election day, Europeans will say, ‘Well, it looked good enough’ when we all know the real problem is that the fraud was already underway.”
And then there is Russia, which is not lacking for the occasion. “The Cold War survived in socialist Venezuela – explains the Washington Post -. Ever since Hugo Chavez wooed the Kremlin in the 2000s, the US and Russia have engaged in what was largely a two-way influence game. ”
Russia, one of the main financiers of Venezuela together with China, is an intermediary for the sale of arms and invests in the oil sector. An ever easier approach, as the US moved away from Caracas and its resources when they decided to exert pressure against the regime with heavy economic sanctions.
Borrell, who once compared Trump’s policy in Venezuela to “cowboys in the far west”, sees space for a third way, which involves supporting the elections. It is no coincidence that the head of European diplomacy said, commenting on this weekend’s elections in Nicaragua, that the situation in the Central American country worries him more than the Venezuelan crisis.
