Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro conditioned this Wednesday (30) the holding of free elections in the country to the complete removal of sanctions from countries like the US to its economy.
“Do you want free elections? Fair and transparent? [Queremos] sanctions-free elections, free of unilateral coercive measures. That they take them all, that they take them all away [que tenhamos] fresh and beautiful elections,” he said, in a meeting with foreign correspondents at Miraflores Palace, in Caracas.
Maduro had already been calling for relief from US, Canadian and European Union sanctions against Venezuela, but in this Wednesday’s statement he made a causal relationship between that measure and the holding of a free election.
Caracas’ official electoral calendar predicts a presidential race for 2024, but the regime has yet to set a date. Faced with the reorganization of the opposition, which decided to hold primaries to have a single name in the dispute, Maduro even threatened to anticipate the process.
The Venezuelan dictator has just resumed dialogue with the opposition after a year of suspension of talks, in a negotiation in which elections are the central theme. Opposition politicians claim the regime offers guarantees of a free and fair process and allows it to be independently overseen by the international community.
This Wednesday, Maduro also spoke about the recent US announcement that they will again allow the oil company Chevron to import oil and derivatives produced in Venezuelan territory, as long as the South American country’s state-owned giant, PDVSA, does not benefit financially. .
According to the Chavista leader, the American concession was a step in “the right direction, although it is not enough for what Venezuela demands, which is the complete lifting of all unilateral coercive measures on the oil industry.”
“The idea of taking Venezuela out of the world economic circuit was a bad idea, an extremist idea by Donald Trump, and they are paying for it because Venezuela is part of the global energy equation,” added Maduro. “No matter who it hurts, we have to be there, we are a great oil power and we are going to be a gas power.”
Despite formally maintaining the Trump administration’s line of ignoring Maduro over doubts about the legitimacy of his 2018 re-election, Joe Biden’s government has been establishing contacts with the socialist leader amid the energy crisis sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Maduro, who said that Venezuela was the target of 763 sanctions and that he froze at least $24 billion in foreign accounts, said he expected the release of funds for the agreement signed with the opposition to be immediate. “We hope that the fulfillment of this agreement will not be delayed or delayed for any reason.”
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