Questions for Opposition Candidate Edmundo González

By Luis Fuenmayor Toro – May 16, 2024

We have written in recent press articles, as well as said in our latest interviews on radio and television, that we are concerned about the unknown associated with the support and closeness of María Corina Machado and her Vente Venezuela party for the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. This is not about any animosity towards the principal leader of the Venezuelan opposition, nor anything that denies her virtues and attributes that, like every successful human being, she must have. This is a clear difference that we have with the policy she deploys, as well as with her sectarian and supremacist procedures, which make us doubt that her proximity to power brings the Venezuelan social political scene closer to peace, tranquility, reunion and concord, which the vast majority of us desire. Her speech, her statements, her opinions, her harangues, as well as those of her fierce followers, clearly seem to mean that hatred and persecution will intensify and the confrontations and struggles will not only continue, but would even worsen.

Edmundo González has not convinced us of his independence from María Corina Machado. We are not sure that politically they are different people, and that we are not really looking at her alter ego, so that she is going to be in charge if he is elected president of Venezuela. And I understand that to the usual exalted and crazed fans of Machado it seems very normal that this is the case, but other Venezuelans do not think so, and we have a legitimate right to fight against it. Whoever wants to be with María Corina and with Edmundo González has every right, and those who do not want to be and decide to confront them, also have every right, without being considered ignoble, much less criminals. It is curious how Diosdado Cabello is attacked for the sectarian, offensive and mocking content of his television program Con el Mazo Dando, and at the same time there is an attitude identical to that of the PSUV military man, that calls for the extermination of the Chavista “ideology,” of socialism, of the PSUV and of those who today call themselves its representatives or followers. This is unheard of!

The inconsistencies and incoherence of this opposition sector lead them to claim that they are on the electoral route, but at the same time they have an aggressive, threatening, vindictive and clearly violent discourse, while they scream demanding compliance with the Barbados agreements. They call themselves democrats and claim to be on the electoral route, but they continue to support that structural absurdity, derived from the disappeared “interim government,” and the so-called “legitimate national assembly,” made up of a handful of people who stopped being deputies in 2020, but who continue to act as such from abroad. They are paid in foreign currency and formally manage Venezuelan assets abroad, as well as the national funds in international banking seized by the US treasury. They demand that the government comply with the agreements, but they also support that small group of former magistrates who, from Colombia, call themselves the “legitimate supreme court,” when they do not even have the number of members that could constitute one of the chambers of the Supreme Court (TSJ) in downtown Caracas.

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And the most surprising thing is that the government allows a situation of such an aberrant nature and has not done anything useful to put an end to it, neither in its negotiations with the US State Department, nor in those it carries out with the political parties belonging to the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD). Either it has not negotiated something very important or it has been defeated in that negotiation by the empire and by the extremist opposition, today disguised in democratic and electoral robes. Just as Edmundo González said that he does not agree with the sanctions, distancing himself from those who have focused their policy on this type of anti-national measures: María Corina, López, Ledezma, Borges, Guaidó, I would ask him to speak out as soon as possible in relation to those deputies, fraudsters, who claim to constitute a legitimate national assembly, when their terms ended more than four years ago. What does González think of their existence and that their continued administration of Venezuelan assets and national funds seized abroad? What is his opinion about those who pose as magistrates of a supreme court of justice that works from Colombia?

And what is his opinion about the current “Transition Statute,” approved by Guaidó’s National Assembly? This statute is still in force and continues to be used by sectors derived from the “interim government,” despite the fact that they claim to be on the electoral route today. We have to demand these and many other answers from Edmundo as the presidential candidate that he is, but we will leave it here for the moment, with the understanding that being transparent in the cases indicated would contribute a lot to clearing up the unknowns surrounding his candidacy and would open up other support options. He should also, as soon as possible, make a clear proposal to the government to clear up doubts about the persecution of his officials for political or retaliatory motivations. What are you waiting for? Are you going to allow the government, in the absence of agreements, to use the TSJ to disqualify the PUD? Why not publicly request the start of direct negotiations with Maduro, in order to guarantee the best possible electoral and post-electoral climate? These are very serious proposals, completely developed in the direction drafted by Presidents Petro and Lula. Why wait, then?

Luis Fuenmayor Toro (born July 10, 1945, in Caracas, Venezuela) is a physician and surgeon, and a university professor, based in Venezuela. He was rector of the Central University of Venezuela from 1988 to 1992. Fuenmayor Toro was a Chavista sympathizer until 2009 when he joined the opposition.

(Aporrea)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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