Demonstrators in Caracas hold a banner depicting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores with the slogan "Bring Them Back," demanding their release from illegal US imprisonment. Photo: Telesur.
The South African party Al Jama-ah promoted a special session in the national parliament to demand the release of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores, from US prison. On Saturday, March 27, the party presented the resolution as a matter of solidarity from South African legislators towards Venezuela and as an expression of condemnation of the Monroe Doctrine and the Donald Trump administration’s warmongering.
The resolution demanding the release of the Venezuelan presidential couple received support from representatives of most parties in the South African parliament. Among them were members of the International Relations Commission of the parliament, led by the African National Congress (ANC), and the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, Alvin Botes. Centrist parties such as the Patriotic Alliance and Action SA also supported the initiative.
At the regular session the day before, Al Jama-ah took advantage of its only annual opportunity to propose its own resolutions, introducing the demand condemning US interventionism. Although the resolution was initially rejected, the intervention of the party’s leader, Ganief Hendricks, led to a special plenary session held virtually and behind closed doors on Saturday.
At that session, only two parties voted against the resolution: the Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party, and the right-wing Freedom Front Plus.
The official position of the South African government aligns with the approved resolution. In his speech, Deputy Foreign Minister Botes called the forced transfer of the presidential couple to the US a “kidnapping” and a “military intervention,” carried out by elite US units in a military invasion that left more than a hundred dead, an event the Trump administration is trying to pass off as a “police operation.” Botes called for the end of persecution against President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores and demanded their immediate release.
The parliamentary session took place following the call by Al Jama-ah MP Imraan Ismail Moosa, who urged his colleagues to support the international campaign #BringThemBack. In his presentation, the MP argued that the kidnapping and illegal transfer of the Venezuelan leader to the United States poses serious implications in terms of international law, sovereignty, and human rights.
Protests in Venezuela and US Demand Freedom for Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores
President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were kidnapped by the US on January 3 through a military invasion of Venezuela. They were subsequently taken to New York and imprisoned. There, they face fabricated charges in a politically biased trial.
Moosa warned that this type of action “further challenges established principles such as the immunity of heads of state, setting a controversial precedent for the application of US domestic law extraterritorially.”
Al Jama-ah also criticized the US for violating Venezuelan sovereignty, highlighting the consequences of similar interventions against other countries. The party emphasized that the international community must condemn these actions and reinforce respect for international law. The party was one of the first to join the international campaign #BringThemBack, aimed at visibilizing the case of President Maduro and First Lady Flores and demanding their immediate release from illegal imprisonment.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
