Venezuela’s Jorge Rodríguez: If EU Maintains Sanctions, It Cannot Be Invited to Observe Our Elections

Venezuela’s National Assembly unanimously approved an agreement in repudiation of the decision of the European Union (EU) to extend the illegal, extortive unilateral coercive economic measures—euphemistically referred to as “sanctions”—applied by the US and its vassals against the Venezuelan people.

During an ordinary session this Tuesday, November 14, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, explained that the provisions established in the Barbados agreement have not been complied with, including the lifting of sanctions, for which he stressed that as long as there is a single sanction against Venezuela, no representative of the European Union (EU) will be permitted to legitimately observe the electoral processes planned by the CNE for 2024 and 2025.

Rodríguez noted that the Venezuelan delegation will shortly reveal and make public secret conversations which they have held by order of the national president. “We are on the verge and very close to revealing the tenor of those conversations, because some of the postulates and regulations that were agreed upon have not been met,” said Rodríguez.

“They have not realized that they are not an empire, and they dare to act against the Venezuelan homeland,” Rodríguez said.

He added that the same people who have sanctioned Venezuelan officials have come to the PDVSA office and other state institutions, among others, “to beg us to sell them oil.”

“European, Italian, and Hungarian companies come to beg us to sell them oil and gas, and they beg a person who is sanctioned,” Rodríguez said. “As long as there is one Venezuelan sanctioned by the European Union—even if it is a harmless sanction, because they would be violating principles of the law and the Barbados agreements—as long as there is any sanction, they will be prevented from coming to Venezuela to observe any type of election.”

Rodríguez explained that there is a political agreement between the Venezuelan government and the opposition, signed in Barbados, which established, as its fourth point, with a view to the 2024 presidential elections, details regarding any “request for invitation to technical and electoral observation missions, including the European Union, the United Nations panel of electoral experts, the African Union, the Inter-American Union of Electoral Bodies, and the Carter Center for the purposes of observing the presidential elections, with strict adherence to the Venezuelan constitution, the law and the agreements signed with the [Venezuelan] electoral authority.”

Rodríguez emphasized that “the administrative agreement that the European Union [was] signed with the National Electoral Council so that they could attend, as observers, the election of mayors and governors of the year 2021. The fourth point says that the electoral mission of the EU and its members will maintain strict conduct of impartiality, objectivity, independence, and non-interference in the electoral process and respect for sovereignty.”

Rodríguez noted that “they have to be impartial, they have to be objective, and they have to respect the independence and sovereignty of Venezuela.” He asked how one can be objective, if they interfere in the internal affairs of Venezuela? “They took the side of one of the parties. I correct myself, I apologize. They did not take it. They are lap dogs, they [Washington] forced them to assume it and they said ‘yes, sir.'”

The president of parliament added that there can be no impartiality on the part of those who attack elected politicians in Venezuela. “There are deputies of this National Assembly who are sanctioned by the EU,” noted Rodríguez. “The president of the National Electoral Council, with whom they eventually have to sign the administrative agreement, is sanctioned.”

European Union Extends Illegal Sanctions on Venezuela Despite Energy Crisis

Rodolfo Sanz: they disqualified themselves
Deputy Rodolfo Sanz, who took the right to speak, noted that Venezuela is no longer the backyard of the US and that the European Union has disqualified itself from participating as observers in any Venezuelan electoral process by assuming such an arrogant attitude.

“We are not doing it, they are doing it to themselves,” said Sanz, “With their interference, they have disqualified themselves from coming to observe the clean and transparent electoral process that we will carry out and from coming to observe the recall referendum… Venezuela is not a colony or neocolony of any empire. It is no longer anyone’s backyard. Europe really became the United States’ backyard.”

Arrogant and illicit decision
The recently passed agreement states that Venezuela’s parliament “categorically rejects the arrogant and illicit decision of the European Union, through which it extends the imposition of illegal and arbitrary coercive unilateral measures against the Venezuelan people.”

Likewise, the parliament demanded the definitive cessation of the economic, financial, and commercial blockade and other unilateral coercive measures whose consequences and negative impact affect the security and human rights of the Venezuelan people, preventing the possibility of developing a constructive and respectful dialogue between the states.

 

 

(Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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