Venezuelan Extreme Right Lashes Out at Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández (Diplomatic Relations with Venezuela)

The Venezuelan and international extreme right have reacted with harsh criticism and attacks to a recent announcement made by the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, who stated that his government will reestablish bilateral relations with the Venezuelan government headed by President Nicolás Maduro Moros.

Representatives of Venezuelan opposition extreme right and those of US power groups have lashed out against Fernández who recently said that it is time for Argentina to fully normalize diplomatic, political and economic relations with Venezuela. These bilateral relations were terminated by former president Mauricio Macri, who had joined the Lima Group against Venezuela.

Reacting to Fernández’s announcement, former deputy Juan Guaidó resorted to his well-known and worn-out commonplace of asking for “free and fair” elections as soon as possible, although the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela establishes that presidential elections will take place in 2024.

Guaidó, as usual, accused the Venezuelan government of being a “dictatorship,” something that even other right-wing factions have questioned, given the freedom of movement and expression that the self-proclaimed “interim president” enjoys.

Presidente @alferdez: si quiere ayudar a Venezuela exija junto a nosotros elecciones libres y justas, con condiciones recogidas en reciente informe de UE, exija justicia para victimas de violaciones de DDHH que señala la ONU y la CPI. Negar la dictadura no ayuda a los venezolanos https://t.co/pbrr41ffSv

— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) April 19, 2022

“President Alberto Fernández, if you want to help Venezuela, demand together with us free and fair election, in conditions mentioned in the recent European Union report,” wrote Guaidó on Twitter. “Demand justice for the human rights violations that the UN and the ICC report. Ignoring the dictatorship does not help Venezuelans.”

Although Guaidó referred to the report by the European Union (EU) election observation team that monitored the November 21 elections last year, he forgot to mention that the EU representatives declared that election to have been free and fair. He also neglected how both the International Criminal Court and various UN bodies have weaponized human rights in the case of Venezuela, as has been pointed out by the Venezuelan government many times.

Another critic of Alberto Fernández was the Venezuelan opposition figure and fugitive from justice, Leopoldo López, who remains at large under protection of the Spanish government. He claimed that that Fernández is acting due to “economic interests” that have brought him closer to Venezuela, which seems ironic considering that López has frequently repeated that Venezuela is bankrupt and shows no signs of recovery or prosperity.

“The normalization of a corrupt, murderous, drug-trafficking dictatorship that systematically violates human rights and has caused the worst migration crisis in the history of Latin America is unacceptable,” wrote Leopoldo López on Twitter. “Those who, out of economic interests, want relations with Maduro are accomplices in his crimes.”

Some US groups and figures have also joined the attack against the Argentine president. Tamara Taraciuk, director of Human Rights Watch for the Americas, posted an article which quotes a tweet by US senator Marco Rubio, who commented that, “In Alberto Fernández’s Argentina, the Kremlin’s influence is welcomed in our region, as well as the recognition of the tyrannical and illegitimate Maduro narco-regime in Venezuela. This foolish diplomacy poses a direct threat to US national security interests.”

Muy desafortunadas declaraciones del Presidente @alferdez sobre Venezuela.

Si el gobierno argentino no parte de un diagnóstico real sobre lo que ocurre en Venezuela, sus gestiones sólo servirán para legitimar al régimen represivo de Nicolás Maduro.https://t.co/B5xzqSbck2

— Tamara Taraciuk (@TamaraTaraciuk) April 19, 2022

In Alberto Fernández's #Argentina, the #Kremlin’s influence is welcomed in our region, as well as the recognition of the tyrannical and illegitimate Maduro narco-regime in #Venezuela.

This foolish diplomacy poses a direct threat to U.S. national security interests. https://t.co/RFpfipUjvx

— Senator Rubio Press (@SenRubioPress) April 18, 2022

Featured image: Former deputy Juan Guaidó (left), President of Argentina Alberto Fernández (center), and fugitive from Venezuelan justice Leopoldo López (right). Photo: RedradioVE.

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz, with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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