The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Deputy Jorge Rodriguez, head of the Venezuelan government delegation to the dialogue with the opposition, addresses a press conference, January 29, 2024. Photo: Últimas Noticias.
The delegations of the Venezuelan government and the opposition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) are ready for the formation of the Commission for Monitoring and Verification of the Barbados Agreements, signed by both parties in October 2023. This was reported by the head of the delegation of the Venezuelan government, Jorge Rodríguez, at a press conference on Monday, January 29. He highlighted that the decision was taken after receiving an invitation from the head of the facilitating delegation of the Kingdom of Norway, Dag Nylander, on January 27.
“We have consulted President Nicolás Maduro, and our response is that we are going to make another attempt to maintain and sustain the tenets of the Barbados Agreement, despite all the attacks and attempts to trample the constitutional route by those who always trample the constitutional route,” said Rodríguez.
He noted that the Venezuelan government has responded to the facilitating delegation of the Kingdom of Norway, calling for the Monitoring and Verification Commission of the Barbados Agreements to be convened and formed. He added that in this mechanism “we have many things to show you.”
The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, also specified that the facilitating country, Norway, as well as the accompanying countries and the delegations of the national government and the opposition, will be part of this commission.
No external interference
During the press conference, Rodríguez cited several sections of the Barbados Agreement, signed by both delegations. He made particular emphasis on the point of violence and external interference: “We reject any form of political violence against Venezuela, its State, and its institutions. The parties will defend the promotion of a public discourse and a political and social climate favorable to the development of a peaceful and participatory electoral process, without external interference.”
After reading the text corresponding to the third point of section 5 of the Partial Agreement on the Promotion of Political Rights and Electoral Guarantees for All, Rodríguez added: “Gentlemen of the government of the United States of America, this agreement expressly states that external interference of any kind is not accepted.”
He fyrther added that the agreement signed in Barbados also establishes that “the parties reject any form of violence in the exercise of politics, as well as any type of actions that threaten the sovereignty, peace and territorial integrity of Venezuela,” something that explicitly contradicts the terrorist plots recently unveiled by Venezuelan authorities, plots that involve opposition politicians and figures.
Moreover, the Agreement states that “Authorization will be applicable to all presidential candidates and political parties that meet the established requirements to participate in the presidential election, consistent with the procedures in Venezuelan law.” Reading this point, the president of the National Assembly pointed out, “This is called a conditional situation.”
He highlighted that the agreement makes it very clear what procedures had to be followed, including as the appeal against disqualification to be made before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
“Widows of the coup d’état”
The head of the government delegation decried that “the same black heralds have been observed, we have noticed the same widows of coups d’état, the same plaintive intention to call for violence.” He thus referred to the fugitive from Venezuelan justice system, Antonio Ledezma, who said that there will be no elections in Venezuela in 2024.
“I want to say this above all to these sectors of the extreme right, to those who attempted atrocious crimes against the peace of the republic in the past and also in 2023: under all circumstances, in Venezuela, there will be presidential elections in 2024,” Rodriguez stressed.
He added that all the signatory parties of the Barbados Agreement stated that they were going to respect the unappealable decisions of the Supreme Court in the evaluation of the disqualifications, and the mechanism defined in the Barbados Agreement had been followed to the letter by the TSJ.
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
