The Cuban regime called for an end to "interference" in Venezuela and denounced the resolution approved by the countries that make up the Organization of American States (OAS) regarding the electoral fraud committed by Nicolás Maduro's regime.
"As we warned, an interventionist resolution on Venezuela was imposed at the OAS. That organization, which supported coups, dictatorships, and did not condemn US invasions in the region, lacks the authority to urge our countries to submit to spurious mandates. Stop the interventionism," demanded Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla on X.
The Permanent Council of the OAS approved on Friday, by consensus, a resolution urging the National Electoral Council of Venezuela (CNE) to publish the records of the presidential election held on July 28, broken down by polling station.
Driven by the United States, the resolution also called on the CNE to "respect the fundamental principle of popular sovereignty, through an impartial verification of results that ensures the transparency, credibility, and legitimacy of the electoral process."
The agreed text captured the concerns expressed by several countries in the region regarding the transparency and fairness of elections manipulated by a regime that seeks to perpetuate itself in power by disregarding the will of the people expressed at the polls by Venezuelans.
It also condemned the repression unleashed by Nicolás Maduro following the electoral fraud and the peaceful protests organized by the opposition.
According to the independent international mission to establish facts about Venezuela, established by the UN Human Rights Council, at least 23 deaths have been recorded, most of them due to gunfire, in the context of the protests that have shaken the country.
In addition, the Mission documented the detention of at least 1,260 people, including 160 women, although the Attorney General of Venezuela raised the figure to over 2,200 detainees, many of whom have been labeled as "terrorists."
The resolution—adopted without a public vote—managed to advance two weeks after a previous draft, discussed on July 31, failed to obtain enough votes for approval. In that session, the document received 17 of the 18 necessary votes, with 11 abstentions and five absences.
Denounced as fraudulent by the majority of countries in the international community, the result of the Venezuelan elections proclaimed by the CNE has only been recognized by a handful of countries allied with Maduro's regime, including Cuba, Russia, China, and Iran.
The OAS report denounced the Cuban regime's advisory role in the repression in Venezuela.
The protests in Havana against the alleged "interference" of Latin American countries in the "internal affairs" of Venezuela contrast with the Cuban regime's penetration of the institutions of the Andean country, especially in the armed forces and in advisory roles regarding social control and repression.
In May, the OAS presented the seventh annual report of the Casla Institute, which is responsible for sharing with Latin America the lessons of democracy and economics that can be learned from the transformation of the former communist countries of Eastern Europe.
Prepared by independent international experts, the study denounced the Cuban advisory role in Venezuela's repressive machinery and urged the International Criminal Court to investigate its intervention and involvement in the commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela.
Tamara Sujú, director of the Casla Institute, read during the report presentation the testimony of a Venezuelan torture victim who recounts how they hung him upside down and whipped the soles of his feet, causing his nails to come off a few days later. "There was a Cuban who, laughing, told the person whipping me: 'I don't think you're hitting him hard enough. I think I'm going to have to show you how it's done.' That Cuban brutally whipped my feet."
"After the protests of 2014, Maduro took the lead in the persecution, supported by the experience of the Cuban regime in terms of repression and surveillance, applying intimidating techniques, torture to subdue opponents and dissenters, allowing their participation in the planning and execution of torture and sexual violence," Sujú added.
The Casla Institute identified a semi-secret unit of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) dedicated to the training of agents in what they call Base Cien. In this unit, Sujú explained, high-ranking Cuban officials are involved in training personnel who infiltrate political parties.
"We ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation team handling the Venezuela case to investigate the Cuban regime for its direct involvement in the formation, planning of repression, persecution, and incitement of crimes defined in the Rome Statute," emphasized the director of the Casla Institute after denouncing the Cuban regime at the ICC for crimes against humanity committed in Venezuelan territory.
The complaint consists of three parts. The first is a summary of the background of Cuban interference in Venezuela and the penetration and imposition of the Castro-communist ideological model in all public institutions, security and intelligence agencies, and the National Armed Forces, where witnesses from Cuba and Venezuela narrated to the Court how this fusion occurred.
The second includes testimonies from military and civilians and their experience with the Cuban government, whether because they worked with them within the institutional framework, because they were trained in Venezuela and Cuba by Cuban officers, or because they had direct contact with military or intelligence agents from Cuba.
Finally, the third part includes testimonies from the victims of torture induced or carried out by Cuban officials, together with Venezuelan officials, Sujú emphasized.
The Casla Institute obtained the eight confidential agreements signed between Cuba and Venezuela on May 26, 2008, by General Álvaro López Miera, who was then the Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces of Cuba and Chief of the General Staff, and General Gustavo Reyes Rangel Briceño, Minister of Popular Power for Defense. López Miera is currently the Minister of Defense of Cuba.
The first agreement between Venezuela and Cuba discusses the creation and conditions for the permanence of the Coordination and Liaison Group of Cuba in Venezuela. The second pertains to the development of Military Intelligence services, and the third agreement focuses on technical assistance in the field of counterintelligence.
Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and his 2019 statements denying Cuban interventionism.
"A government known for its use of lies has Bolton as a high exponent. He lies when he says there is an army of 25,000 Cuban troops in Venezuela. Accompanying him is a truth: he confesses the application of the Monroe Doctrine," tweeted the Cuban Foreign Minister in March 2019 with the hashtag #HandsOffVenezuela.
A month earlier, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó stated that "if there is an intervention in Venezuela, it is Cuba's," an assessment shared and denounced by the United States.
Around the same time, a team of journalists from Univision led by Jorge Ramos denounced the detention they suffered at the Palacio de Miraflores during an interview that made Nicolás Maduro uncomfortable. The reporters, who were deported, claimed that Cuban agents participated in the operation.
In September 2018, Cuban troops participated in military maneuvers alongside the National Armed Force (FAN) of Venezuela, according to the portal Infodefensa. In the military drills, which took place at the border between Colombia and Venezuela, forces from Russia and China were also present.
"Come on, Mr. Bruno Rodríguez, these are no longer the times when everything was hidden from the world. And when Fidel would stand up to speak about Proletarian Internationalism. The time for lies is over, Mr. Bruno. The time is up. Tick Tock, Tick Tock...", independent journalist Yordan Roque Álvarez reminded the Cuban chancellor in March 2019.
His words were reproduced on the social media of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), which published an extensive list of the Cuban military and repressive forces present in Venezuela.
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