Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) mem­ber-coun­tries Guyana and Suri­name have joined a strong in­ter­na­tion­al ap­peal for “wis­dom and re­straint” in the Venezuela cri­sis.

Meet­ing in San­to Domin­go, the cap­i­tal of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, on Fri­day, the two CARI­COM mem­ber-coun­tries joined the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and 17 oth­er coun­tries, as well as the Eu­ro­pean Union (EU), in ex­press­ing strong con­cern in a joint state­ment about the po­lit­i­cal cri­sis in Venezuela since the much-dis­put­ed Ju­ly 28 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. 

“At this de­ci­sive junc­ture for Venezuela and the re­gion, all so­cial and po­lit­i­cal ac­tors must ex­er­cise the ut­most re­straint in their pub­lic ac­tions,” said the joint state­ment, which was al­so signed by Ar­genti­na, Cana­da, Chile, Cos­ta Ri­ca, the Czech Re­pub­lic, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Italy, Mo­roc­co, Nether­lands, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Por­tu­gal, Uruguay and the Unit­ed States. 

“Ac­cep­tance and re­spect for the dig­ni­ty and in­tegri­ty of all in­di­vid­u­als are the es­sen­tial prin­ci­ples up­on which the peace­ful co­ex­is­tence in our so­ci­eties is built,” the state­ment added. “We urge for the re­spect of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples, as well as the hu­man rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms of all Venezue­lans, par­tic­u­lar­ly the free­dom of peace­ful as­sem­bly and the free­dom of ex­pres­sion.”

The 21 coun­tries, in­clud­ing the EU, said they were “con­cerned that this re­al­i­ty cur­rent­ly does not ex­ist in Venezuela”, stat­ing that re­ports of ar­bi­trary de­ten­tions of Venezue­lans with­out due process are “alarm­ing.”

They ur­gent­ly called for the im­me­di­ate re­lease of de­tained Venezue­lans.

The sig­na­to­ries al­so ex­pressed deep con­dem­na­tion of the re­pres­sion of pro­test­ers and the vi­o­lence that has claimed the lives of many Venezue­lans in the post-elec­tion con­text, call­ing on Venezue­lan au­thor­i­ties to ur­gent­ly end the vi­o­lence and re­lease all those who have been de­tained, in­clud­ing op­po­si­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Fur­ther­more, they re­quest­ed the im­me­di­ate re­turn of the Of­fice of the Unit­ed Na­tions High Com­mis­sion­er for Hu­man Rights to Venezuela and called on Venezuela to en­sure the nec­es­sary con­di­tions for it to ful­ly car­ry out its man­date.

In ad­di­tion, the sig­na­to­ries called on Venezuela, as a state par­ty to the Cara­cas Con­ven­tion on Diplo­mat­ic Asy­lum of 1954, to com­ply with its pro­vi­sion by is­su­ing the safe pas­sage that will al­low the six asy­lum seek­ers cur­rent­ly re­sid­ing in the of­fi­cial res­i­dence of Ar­genti­na to safe­ly leave Venezue­lan ter­ri­to­ry.

The 20 coun­tries and the EU took note of the pre­lim­i­nary re­port by the Unit­ed Na­tions Ex­pert Pan­el on the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in Venezuela, which in­di­cates that the Na­tion­al Elec­toral Coun­cil (CNE) of Venezuela has yet to present the elec­toral records that sub­stan­ti­ate the va­lid­i­ty of the re­sults an­nounced on Au­gust 2.

The coun­tries and the EU al­so not­ed that a dig­i­tal ver­sion of more than 80 per­cent of the elec­toral records has been pub­lished, “which shows a dif­fer­ent out­come than that re­port­ed by the CNE.”

“Con­se­quent­ly, we re­quest the im­me­di­ate pub­li­ca­tion of all orig­i­nal records and the im­par­tial and in­de­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion of those re­sults, prefer­ably by an in­ter­na­tion­al en­ti­ty, to en­sure re­spect for the will of the Venezue­lan peo­ple as ex­pressed at the polls,” they said. “Any de­lay in this process calls in­to ques­tion the Au­gust 2, 2024, of­fi­cial procla­ma­tion.”

Stat­ing that these na­tions and the EU have pre­vi­ous­ly ap­pealed for peace­ful di­a­logue and ne­go­ti­a­tions to re­solve se­ri­ous con­flicts in Venezuela, they said that, “Now more than ever, Venezuela must ho­n­our that lega­cy to re­store peace­ful co­ex­is­tence, pub­lic safe­ty and po­lit­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty, which, ac­cord­ing to ac­counts by the In­de­pen­dent In­ter­na­tion­al Fact-Find­ing Mis­sion on the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela of the UN Hu­man Rights Coun­cil, are be­ing threat­ened by the Venezue­lan se­cu­ri­ty au­thor­i­ties.”

“The cur­rent sit­u­a­tion calls for a broad, in­clu­sive and good-faith di­a­logue to fa­cil­i­tate a po­lit­i­cal agree­ment that fos­ters na­tion­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, peace, pub­lic se­cu­ri­ty and democ­ra­cy in Venezuela,” the coun­tries said.

“We are com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing all ef­forts in this di­rec­tion, and al­ways ad­vo­cat­ing for a gen­uine­ly Venezue­lan so­lu­tion in which democ­ra­cy and jus­tice, and peace and se­cu­ri­ty will pre­vail.,” they added.

Ear­li­er this month, the Unit­ed States con­grat­u­lat­ed Venezue­lan op­po­si­tion leader Ed­mun­do González Ur­ru­tia for re­ceiv­ing the most votes in Venezuela’s Jul. 28 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion as doc­u­ment­ed by what Sec­re­tary of State Antony J. Blinken de­scribed as “the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic op­po­si­tion’s ex­ten­sive ef­forts to en­sure a trans­par­ent ac­count­ing of the votes.”

US De­part­ment of State Spokesper­son Matthew Miller said that Blinken, who al­so spoke with Venezuela’s op­po­si­tion mem­ber María Co­ri­na Macha­do, “ex­pressed his con­cern for their safe­ty and well-be­ing fol­low­ing the elec­tion and con­demned all po­lit­i­cal vi­o­lence and re­pres­sion.”

“The Sec­re­tary ap­plaud­ed the Venezue­lan peo­ple for their ded­i­ca­tion to democ­ra­cy in the face of sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges and reaf­firmed the Unit­ed States’ com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing the process of re-es­tab­lish­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic norms in Venezuela,” Miller said.

Blinken said that at least 12 mil­lion Venezue­lans “peace­ful­ly went to the polls and ex­er­cised one of the most pow­er­ful rights giv­en to peo­ple in any democ­ra­cy: the right to vote.

“Un­for­tu­nate­ly, the pro­cess­ing of those votes and the an­nounce­ment of re­sults by the Maduro-con­trolled Na­tion­al Elec­toral Coun­cil (CNE) were deeply flawed, yield­ing an an­nounced out­come that does not rep­re­sent the will of the Venezue­lan peo­ple,” he said.

“The CNE’s rapid de­c­la­ra­tion of Nicolás Maduro as the win­ner of the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion came with no sup­port­ing ev­i­dence,” he added. “The CNE still has not pub­lished dis­ag­gre­gat­ed da­ta or any of the vote tal­ly sheets, de­spite re­peat­ed calls from Venezue­lans and the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to do so.”

“As the in­de­pen­dent Carter Cen­ter’s ob­ser­va­tion mis­sion re­port­ed, the CNE’s fail­ure to pro­vide the precinct-lev­el of­fi­cial re­sults, as well as ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties through­out the process, have stripped the CNE’s an­nounced out­come of any cred­i­bil­i­ty,” con­tin­ued Blinken, stat­ing that the  “de­mo­c­ra­t­ic op­po­si­tion” has, in the in­ter­im, pub­lished more than 80 per­cent of the tal­ly sheets re­ceived di­rect­ly from polling sta­tions through­out Venezuela. 

“Those tal­ly sheets in­di­cate that Ed­mun­do González Ur­ru­tia re­ceived the most votes in this elec­tion by an in­sur­mount­able mar­gin,” the US Sec­re­tary of State said. “In­de­pen­dent ob­servers have cor­rob­o­rat­ed these facts, and this out­come was al­so sup­port­ed by elec­tion day ex­it polls and quick counts.”

In the days since the elec­tion, Miller said the Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion has con­sult­ed wide­ly with part­ners and al­lies around the world, “and while coun­tries have tak­en dif­fer­ent ap­proach­es in re­spond­ing, none have con­clud­ed that Nicolás Maduro re­ceived the most votes this elec­tion.”

“Giv­en the over­whelm­ing ev­i­dence, it is clear to the Unit­ed States and, most im­por­tant­ly, to the Venezue­lan peo­ple that Ed­mun­do González Ur­ru­tia won the most votes in Venezuela’s Ju­ly 28 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion,” he said.

Mean­time, the G7 For­eign Min­is­ters of Cana­da, France, Ger­many, Italy, Japan, the Unit­ed King­dom and the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca, and the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Eu­ro­pean Union have ex­pressed “sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Venezuela, who peace­ful­ly ex­er­cised their right to vote in large num­bers on Jul. 28 to shape the fu­ture of their coun­try.”

They not­ed that in­de­pen­dent do­mes­tic and in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers’ re­ports have raised “se­ri­ous con­cerns about the an­nounced re­sults of Venezuela’s Pres­i­den­tial elec­tions and about the way the elec­toral process was con­duct­ed, es­pe­cial­ly re­gard­ing the ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties and lack of trans­paren­cy in the fi­nal tab­u­la­tion of the votes.

“It is of para­mount im­por­tance that the re­sult re­flects the will of the Venezue­lan peo­ple,” said the G7 For­eign Min­is­ters in a state­ment. “We call on rel­e­vant rep­re­sen­ta­tives to pub­lish the de­tailed elec­toral re­sults in full trans­paren­cy, and we ask elec­toral rep­re­sen­ta­tives to im­me­di­ate­ly share all in­for­ma­tion with the op­po­si­tion and in­de­pen­dent ob­servers.”

“As the process un­folds, we call for max­i­mum re­straint in the coun­try and for a peace­ful, de­mo­c­ra­t­ic and Venezue­lan-led so­lu­tion,” they added.

The Unit­ed Na­tions al­so said that its In­de­pen­dent In­ter­na­tion­al Fact-Find­ing Mis­sion on Venezuela had voiced “deep con­cern” over re­ports of hu­man rights abus­es fol­low­ing the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in Venezuela.

The UN said the mis­sion has re­ceived “cred­i­ble ac­counts of de­ten­tions, in­juries and fa­tal­i­ties linked to vi­o­lence by se­cu­ri­ty forces and armed civil­ian groups, known as colec­tivos, in the wake of Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro’s de­clared vic­to­ry.”

The UN not­ed that the Na­tion­al Elec­toral Coun­cil an­nounced in­cum­bent Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro as the win­ner, “spark­ing na­tion­wide protests.”

Mis­sion Chair Mar­ta Val­iñas stressed the need for pub­lic or­der op­er­a­tions to ad­here to in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man rights stan­dards, in­sist­ing that “the use of force must be pro­por­tion­al and aimed at safe­guard­ing hu­man life.”

Mean­while, the Wash­ing­ton-head­quar­tered Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS) said that the Of­fice of the Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al has re­ceived a re­port from the De­part­ment of Elec­toral Co­op­er­a­tion and Ob­ser­va­tion re­gard­ing the pres­i­den­tial elec­toral process in Venezuela in 2024.

“The oblig­a­tion of each in­sti­tu­tion in Venezuela should be to en­sure free­dom, jus­tice and trans­paren­cy in the elec­toral process,” the OAS said. “The peo­ple should have the max­i­mum guar­an­tees of po­lit­i­cal free­dom to be able to ex­press them­selves at the polls, and to pro­tect the rights of cit­i­zens to be elect­ed.”

“Through­out this en­tire elec­toral process, we saw the ap­pli­ca­tion by the Venezue­lan regime of its re­pres­sive scheme com­ple­ment­ed by ac­tions aimed at com­plete­ly dis­tort­ing the elec­toral re­sult, mak­ing that re­sult avail­able to the most aber­rant ma­nip­u­la­tion,” it added. “This con­tin­ues.”

Last week, the Lon­don-based Amnesty In­ter­na­tion­al sent an open let­ter to the pros­e­cu­tor of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court, Karim Khan, call­ing for ur­gent ac­tion on the com­mis­sion of crimes un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law in Venezuela.

“Pros­e­cu­tor Karim Khan’s si­lence in the face of the cri­sis in Venezuela is alarm­ing,” said Eri­ka Gue­vara-Rosas, Amnesty In­ter­na­tion­al’s se­nior di­rec­tor of re­search, ad­vo­ca­cy, pol­i­cy and cam­paigns. “His of­fice has wit­nessed the deaths of dozens of peo­ple at the hands of se­cu­ri­ty forces and pro-gov­ern­ment armed groups, as well as the ar­bi­trary de­ten­tion of more than 2,000 peo­ple in a mat­ter of days, just for op­pos­ing or be­ing per­ceived to op­pose Nicolás Maduro’s gov­ern­ment.”

“On top of that, we’ve seen at­tacks, threats and the stigma­ti­za­tion of hu­man rights de­fend­ers and civ­il so­ci­ety or­ga­ni­za­tions that ex­pose the gov­ern­ment’s ar­bi­trary ac­tions, and who look to the Of­fice of the Pros­e­cu­tor as a last re­sort for jus­tice,” she added. “This tragedy is a con­se­quence of the im­puni­ty for se­ri­ous hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions and crimes against hu­man­i­ty that Maduro’s gov­ern­ment has been com­mit­ting for years.”

“How­ev­er, the cur­rent in­crease in the scale and grav­i­ty of the acts be­ing car­ried out against the Venezue­lan peo­ple de­mands an ur­gent ac­cel­er­a­tion of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try,” Guer­rera-Rosas con­tin­ued. “In con­crete terms, we ex­pect the pros­e­cu­tor to is­sue a pre­ven­tive state­ment as a warn­ing to the per­pe­tra­tors of pos­si­ble in­ter­na­tion­al crimes and hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions.”

“We al­so call on him to pub­licly sup­port Venezue­lan NGOs (non-gov­ern­men­tal or­ga­ni­za­tions) and hu­man rights de­fend­ers, and to con­demn the at­tacks against those who are be­ing tar­get­ed for their tire­less work for jus­tice,” she said. “Now more than ever, we need the Of­fice of the Pros­e­cu­tor of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court to take res­olute and im­me­di­ate ac­tion.” —SAN­TO DOMIN­GO (CMC)