SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- With just two days left until the presidential elections in Venezuelathe Nicolás Maduro regime has blocked international and other impartial electoral observers within the country.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced on Friday that a flight to Venezuela carrying several former presidents who were to participate as electoral observers in next Sunday’s elections had been prevented from taking off from that Central American country.
“A Copa (Airlines) plane carrying (former) President (Mireya) Moscoso and other former presidents to Venezuela has not been allowed to take off from Tocumen while they remain on board, due to the blockade of Venezuelan airspace. Likewise, another Copa flight to Panama from Caracas has not been allowed to take off,” the Panamanian president reported on his official X account.
International observers
The above are part of the Freedom and Democracy Group, also composed of the Dominican president, Luis Abinader, and the former Spanish presidents José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy; Mario Abdo Benítez, from Paraguay; Jeanine Áñez and Jorge Quiroga, from Bolivia; Felipe Calderón and Vicente Fox, from Mexico, and Iván Duque and Andrés Pastrana, from Colombia.
The blockade comes after the group denounced that any attempt at fraud should be exposed to the international community.
Other international election observers said they would not travel to Venezuela to carry out these duties.
Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court announced Wednesday that it has canceled plans to send aides following statements by Maduro that Brazil’s electoral records were not audited.
“In light of the false statements against Brazilian electronic voting machines, which, contrary to what Venezuelan authorities claim, are auditable and secure, the Superior Electoral Court will not send technicians to respond to an invitation made by the National Electoral Commission of that country to monitor the elections,” pronounced the Brazilian court.
Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández, meanwhile, said he would not participate as an electoral spectator after the Maduro regime asked him to stay “away.”
According to Fernandez, the Maduro dictatorship expressed concern about his “impartiality” after declaring that Maduro must accept the results if he loses.
Observation inside Venezuela
The Venezuelan opposition has warned that the government is preventing the registration of electoral observers for this Sunday.
Of the 15,797 polling stations across the country, at least 8,000 will have only one ballot box, compared with 6,800 in the 2018 election, according to official figures.
With more votes in each polling station, these sites could be harder to monitor for fraud, according to the regional NGO. Electoral Transparency.
The use of single voting booths could also slow down the voting process and lead to longer queues, the opposition has said. Some 3.9 million voters will cast their ballots in single ballot boxes.
According to the opposition, the National Electoral Council alluded to due to “technical difficulties” in printing the confirmation that more than 90,000 opposition witnesses need to be able to enter the polling stations on Sunday.
“We are mired in these technical problems, not caused by us, just hours before the electoral process,” they said.
At the head of the CNE is Elvis Amoroso, a Chavista and deputy for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) from 1998 to 2015, and very close to the president.
Three days before the elections, dictator Maduro tried to discredit the opposition with his speech.
“We will not allow them to continue causing harm, their time is up (…) There will be an iron fist and justice for the fascists and the violent ones,” said Nicolás Maduro, leader of the Venezuelan regime, during the closing ceremony of his electoral campaign held on Bolívar Avenue in Caracas.
The Chavista leader accused the Venezuelan opposition of planning to ignore the results in order to launch acts of violence. He also said that the Armed Forces are loyal to him and could rise up against a possible opposition government.
At the close of his political campaign, Maduro also asked the Venezuelan people to think carefully about the vote they will cast this Sunday at the polls, where the Chavista leader will seek a second re-election.
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