Madrid Forum insists on its support for Venezuelans

The declaration of the III Regional Meeting of the Madrid Forum, which ended this Friday in Buenos Aires, rejected “the ambiguity” of governments and supranational organizations that do not recognize the opposition Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect in Venezuela“especially” the European Union (EU) and the Spanish Executive.

“We will not rest until the decision of the Venezuelan people, expressed massively in the elections of July 28, is accepted by the dictatorial regime of Nicolás Maduro,” was the first point of the final declaration of the Madrid Forum, read by the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, at the close of the forum, on the stage of the Palacio Libertad, in Buenos Aires.

He added: “We reject the ambiguity of governments and supranational organizations that do not recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the elected and legitimate president of the Republic of Venezuela, especially the EU and the Spanish government.”

The crisis in Venezuela spanned the Two days of debates at the Madrid Foruman initiative of the Disenso Foundation that brought together forces from 15 Latin American countries in Buenos Aires on Thursday and Friday, following the Bogotá (2022) and Lima (2023) editions.

Abascal had already pointed out on Thursday that the international community “has refused to clearly recognize González Urrutia as president-elect” – in the elections of July 28, after which Maduro was proclaimed the winner, a result widely questioned by the international community and which the opposition denounced as fraud – and “has contributed to the emboldening of the tyrant.”

He said that Maduro “has become emboldened enough to order the arrests” of González Urrutia, “because the international community has not been brave enough.”

González Urrutia was recognized as the winner of the presidential elections of July 28 by the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica, while the European Union did not recognize Maduro’s democratic legitimacy, nor the victory of the opposition.

Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have not recognised Maduro’s victory, but neither have they sided with González Urrutia, instead demanding that the electoral records be published and, in the case of the first two, trying to mediate in the Venezuelan crisis.