Delegation of far-right Spanish politicians deported from Venezuela for attempting to enter the country as "electoral observers" without any invitation from CNE, July 26, 2024. Photo: X/@FonsiLoaiza.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan authorities denied entry to a group of far-right politicians from Spain’s Popular Party (PP) ahead of Sunday’s presidential elections. This group, comprising Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo and other PP deputies, very similar to another group of far-right former Latin American presidents that tried to travel to Venezuela from Panama to launch a media stunt, was denied entry upon their arrival at the Simón Bolívar International Airport on Friday, July 26, and immediately deported back to Spain.
“We came to Venezuela invited by the democratic opposition to accompany the electoral process of Sunday and we are leaving not with suspicion but with the well-founded fear that there will be a coup on Sunday,” said far-right Spanish MEP Esteban González Pons as part of the coordinated media stunt, without mentioning that, according to Venezuelan law, any invitation for electoral observers should be issued by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE).
The deported delegation was composed of PP spokesperson Miguel Tellado, PP Congresswomen Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, Macarena Montesinos, and Belén Hoyo, Member of European Parliament Juan Salafranca, and Senators Juanjo Matari and Alfonso Serrano. They were accompanied by Portuguese MEP Sebastiao Bugalho. All these European far-right politicians have deep connections with the Venezuelan far-right, especially with María Corina Machado and Leopoldo López, and are openly against the Bolivarian Revolution and Chavismo.
El PP buscaba su momento de protagonismo viajando a Venezuela sin realizar los trámites necesarios. Hoy han sido retenidos y serán deportados por ello los ultraderechistas González Pons, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, Miguel Tellado y Alfonso Serrano. pic.twitter.com/fNjGEZmEag
— Fonsi Loaiza (@FonsiLoaiza) July 26, 2024
Airlines flying from Madrid, including Iberia, which brought Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo to Venezuela along with her colleagues from the Popular Party, had been notified in advance by the Venezuelan authorities of the prohibition of the entry into the country of the politicians who had appointed themselves as “electoral observers” without any invitation from the CNE.
So far, Iberia, which ignored the notification, has not commented on the matter, and Venezuelan Civil Aviation authorities have not made any statement about what administrative measures are going to be applied against the Spanish airline.
Spain’s mainstream EFE news agency reported that the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that Venezuelan authorities had notified the Spanish government in advance about the restrictions against the unauthorized delegation and that the PP politicians had decided to make the trip at their own risk.
On July 16, Venezuelan Deputy Minister for Anti-Blockade Policies William Castillo decried that far-right presidential candidate Edmundo González had violated Venezuelan electoral law by unilaterally inviting Spain’s Popular Party to accompany the July 28 elections.
At that time, Castillo wrote on social media, “Edmundo González, administered by Machado, violates the Venezuelan Electoral Law again by unilaterally ‘inviting’ his right-wing friends from the PP of Spain to come to the presidential election without requesting the CNE for the legal invitation that only the electoral body can issue. Open contempt and defiance of the country’s electoral authority. Despair of a right-wing candidate.”
In the case of the delegation of former presidents attempting to travel from Panama to Venezuela with the same purpose, the carrier, COPA airlines, complied with the prohibition and did not allow the far-right former heads of state to board the plane.
Venezuelan authorities
A few days ago, United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Deputy Diosdado Cabello warned that if the former presidents who are members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), a group of right-wing politicians similar to Liberty and Democracy, tried to enter Venezuela without invitation, they would be deported. “They are not invited, they are show-offs! If they show up at the airport, we will expel them without any hesitation whatsoever!” said Cabello on his television program Con El Mazo Dando.
On Friday night, in a live broadcast on Tiktok, President Nicolás Maduro commented on the expulsion of the politicians. “They know that they are not welcome, that they are repudiated, and we even received complaints from the Mexican people for returning Vicente Fox to them,” he said jokingly, referring to the far-right former Mexican president who had been denied entry into Venezuela. “They were not invited by the National Electoral Council, which decides who to invite and who not to invite.”
The Venezuelan civil aviation agency, the National Institute of Civil Aviation (INAC), issued a statement on its social media accounts clarifying that the Venezuelan airspace is not closed as the Panamanian president had written in a tweet on Friday. “The information spread through the social media account of the Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino is false,” INAC stated. “The Venezuelan Aeronautical Authority confirms that air operations are being carried out with complete normalcy. At this moment on the Flight Radar website you can see three Copa Airlines flights operating in Venezuelan airspace.”
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SC
