Blames Opposition, US, OAS For Violent Situation.
VENEZUELAN Ambassador to St. Lucia, Leiff Escalona, on Tuesday said that the violent demonstrations in her country for weeks now are initiated by opposition political parties aiming to overthrow the constitutionally-elected government of President Nicolas Maduro.
“These demonstrations have resulted in the deaths of dozens of Venezuelan nationals, the destruction of the State as well as private property,” Escalona said.
She added that the governments of Colombia and the United States, the OAS and local, regional and international media portray these events as an action in defence of democracy.
President Maduro, Escalona said, has been calling for peace and an end to the violence that has killed about 55 people so far and that he has gone as far as enlisting the support of Pope Francis in this endeavour.
“Several attempts were made to establish a dialogue between the opposition and the Government. These began in May 2016; however in June, the extremist groups began to sabotage the process of discourse with the section of the Opposition which was willing to participate. In October, the processes of dialogue began with a representative of the Vatican, personally appointed by Pope Francis. All these attempts were in vain, because the leadership of the Opposition decided against dialogue,” she said.
Escalona told reporters at her Vigie-based office that in December 2015 elections to the National Assembly resulted in an overwhelming victory for a coalition of opposition parties known as the Democratic Unity Table, also referred to as the MUD (Mesa de UnidadDemocratica).
“With a resounding 2/3 majority, this coalition of opposition parties (which is not a cohesive unit) sought to assert its authority over the other institutions of governance, focusing on the Executive Branch which is headed by President Maduro. In January 2016, the leaders of the now Opposition-controlled National Assembly took the decision to swear-in three deputies who were investigated for electoral fraud and were suspended by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. This act of defiance placed the National Assembly in contempt and, therefore, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice invalidated all its actions and decisions,” she said.
According to her, it was from that moment that a long and complicated process of action and reaction began between the National Assembly and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela.
“Throughout 2016, the National Assembly focused on enacting legislation with the sole purpose of politically destabilizing the country, thus generating a climate of instability amongst the population. Eleven laws were presented by the General Assembly, which exceeded the bounds of legality and were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. One example of the eleven laws was the “Amnesty and National Reconciliation Act”, which sought to pardon sentences of political activists convicted of the commission of crimes against humanity, possession and trafficking of weapons, drugs, terrorism, fraud, instigation to commit criminal acts, among others, dating from as far back as 1999,” she said.
She added that parallel to this parliamentary scenario, the fractures and divisions within the coalition of parties that make up the opposition became public and evident and due to this lack of unity within the MUD, the recall referendum was activated too late, and the registration for state and city council elections, which should have been held in 2016, was not completed. However, the Opposition, in concert with the anti-Government media (the majority supports the Opposition) propagated the view that the President did not want to participate in the referendum nor did he want elections to take place.
“In spite of their delay, in April and May 2016, the Opposition began the first steps to start the process for the referendum, where 1% of signatures of those registered in the Electoral Registry had to be collected to activate the Recall Referendum. With this, the first stage of the activation of the process was fulfilled, what finally took place was fraudulent. Thirty per cent of the signatures collected were invalidated because more than 10,000 were of deceased persons, with more than 3,000 belonging to minors, amongst other attempts at fraud. As a result of the claims made in different areas of the country in October 2016, the courts of five states annulled the process in their territories, until the further ruling of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice,” the Ambassador said.
She said that while the Venezuelan Government has consistently and repeatedly tried to open avenues for dialogue, with the mediation of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Vatican, the opposition rejected overtures for a peace agreement, in order to sharpen its agenda of violence, supported by the Secretary General of the OAS, who used the OAS arena to incite political interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela, supporting the radical groups affiliated with Opposition, with the aim of overthrowing the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The Ambassador stated that the Government of Venezuela firmly rejects all acts of violence and terrorism perpetrated in the country. Aside from the death toll, there has been destruction of infrastructure, public transport, schools, hospitals, parks and recreational facilities.
“The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela continues to use the democratic means established by the National Constitution as well as the gubernatorial elections that will be celebrated on December 10 and the participation in the National Constituent Assembly, which has already initiated discussions at the national level with all sectors. The people and the government of Venezuela will work to resolve the existing problems and will guarantee peace for all Venezuelans by Constitutional means,” she said