The regime of Nicolás Maduro denied entry to Venezuela to a delegation from the Spanish Popular Party that traveled to Caracas on Friday invited by the opposition candidacy of Edmundo González and María Corina Machado for the presidential elections.
The Spanish politicians who were part of the right-wing party delegation were detained at Caracas airport and were ordered to return on another flight to Madrid.
"I have just been informed that the PP delegation made up of 10 deputies, senators, and MEPs is being held at the Caracas airport by the Maduro regime. I demand their immediate release and that the Government of Spain provide the necessary means to that end," denounced Alberto Núñez Feijóo, president of the Spanish Partido Popular, on his social media.
The decision of the Maduro regime contrasts with the approval received by other Spanish politicians, such as former socialist president and supporter of the so-called "Bolivarian revolution," José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, or the founder of the Spanish far-left party Podemos, Juan Carlos Monedero, a propagandist and advisor of chavismo.
Upon their arrival at the Maiquetía 'Simón Bolívar' International Airport, the group of ten Spanish conservative politicians was detained for about two hours, according to Libertad Digital. Shortly after, the expulsion of the delegation was confirmed, which Deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo described as "an absolutely grotesque scene and a fourth-dictatorship."
"They have not dared to put it in writing, although we have asked for it," revealed the popular representative. "They started by saying that we had voted in favor of sanctions against Venezuela, but it was not against the country but against the leaders of the regime... and that was in the European Parliament," she added.
According to Álvarez de Toledo, when asked whether this decision "was in line with elections that the regime itself declares to be free and democratic," the authorities of Maduro's regime replied that yes, "they are free and democratic."
"I told them that this was clearly incompatible with the expulsion of a delegation invited by the opposition," the popular representative told the mentioned media outlet.
For Miguel Tellado, parliamentary spokesperson of the PP who was part of the delegation, “the fact that we have been expelled clearly reveals the [regime's] intentions to manipulate the elections next Sunday.”
In a message shared on his social media, Tellado confessed that “what we feared could happen has occurred” and stated that “the tyrant Maduro has behaved like what he is.”
Álvarez de Toledo also published a message on X with a video in which he wanted to "convey all the strength and all the hope" to Venezuelans who "have mobilized in a heroic and historic way fighting for democracy in their country."
She also said she has communicated with María Corina Machado. "I told her that just as she is not afraid, I am sure that millions of Venezuelans are not afraid either."
In that sense, he urged them to "go out en masse to vote this Sunday so that this country can open its doors and windows and you can become the free and democratic, strong, prosperous, and vibrant nation that you have every right to be."
In addition to the Spanish PP delegation, Maduro's regime prevented four former Latin American presidents from traveling to Caracas on Friday, who intended to act as observers in the elections on Sunday, invited by the opposition.
The flight CM-223 of the Panamanian airline Copa Airlines, which was transporting four former presidents to Venezuela, could not take off from Tocumen airport "due to the blockade of Venezuelan airspace," said Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on X.
The expulsion of observers and witnesses: A classic electoral maneuver of the Chavista regime.
In May 2018, the European Union (EU) announced that the elections in which Maduro was re-elected with a high level of abstention did not meet international standards.
The EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, denounced irregularities and assured that the countries that make up the Union "will consider adopting appropriate measures."
In a statement released, the European Union highlighted that "the presidential and regional elections (in Venezuela) took place without a national agreement on an electoral calendar and did not meet the minimum international standards for a credible process."
"Significant obstacles to the participation of opposition political parties and their leaders, an imbalanced composition of the National Electoral Council, biased electoral conditions, and numerous irregularities reported on election day, including vote buying, hindered fair and equitable elections," Mogherini listed.
In December 2019, the Maduro regime expressed its disagreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) observing the electoral process of 2020 in the South American country.
"I suspect that the entire opposition will agree that the OAS should not attend," said the then Venezuelan Vice President of Communication, Tourism, and Culture, Jorge Rodríguez Gómez, at a press conference.
"At the dialogue table, we reached a series of agreements on audits in the electoral system and the review of the voter registry in Venezuela and about international observation," explained the Chavista leader.
"Make it as broad as possible, with the observation of the United Nations, the European Union, Spain. We will extend an invitation to all organizations that, in good faith, want to attend the parliamentary elections as observers," he noted.
On the contrary, for the Venezuelan vice president, the OAS was not a multilateral organization of the countries of America, but rather aimed at attacking other nations. "It is directly responsible for the coup d'état perpetrated in Bolivia, which violently ended the government of Evo Morales (...) It endorses any aggression against any people in the region that decides to be free," he stated.
At the end of June 2020, Maduro gave 72 hours for the EU representative in Caracas to leave the country, in an expulsion announced following sanctions against a group of Venezuelan officials by the community bloc.
Months later, Maduro ordered the expulsion of the new ambassador of the European Union, Isabelle Brilhante, giving her 72 hours to leave the country in retaliation for the new sanctions imposed by the bloc on 19 officials of the Venezuelan government.
At the end of September 2021, the EU announced the deployment of an electoral observation mission for the regional elections on November 21, the first in 15 years.
The presence of a European Union election observation mission had not been recorded since 2006 and occurred at a time when the opposition had agreed to participate in the elections for governors and mayors, after being absent from the presidential elections in 2018 and the parliamentary elections in 2020, arguing that there were not enough electoral guarantees.
"After years of tensions and polarization, the upcoming elections are a possible important step towards the search for a peaceful and democratic solution to the crisis in Venezuela," said parliamentarian Isabel Santos, head of the electoral observation mission.
Despite having declared his willingness to accept the EU as an observer, Maduro's regime described the mission for the elections being held in the country in November as a "pretentious interference."
After the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, assured that the EU mission was the greatest guarantee for the opposition in the elections on November 21, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry responded that it would not accept "any interference, and that an electoral observation mission with the characteristics described by Mr. Borrell will not be accepted by our country."
Finally, the mission was deployed in the field, but Maduro accused its members of being "spies" and added that their preliminary report aimed to "stain" the elections.
"They searched in a report full of improvisations and poorly written, they tried to tarnish the electoral process and they could not. A delegation of spies, they were not observers, moved freely around the country spying on the social, economic, and political life of the country," said Maduro in a broadcast on state television about the observation by the European Union.
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