Offers Opposition member Corina Machado gave the president a safe passage for a negotiated transition // The president calls her fugitive from justice
▲ Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (center) and his wife, Cilia Flores, arriving yesterday at the Supreme Court of Justice in Caracas.Afp Photo
AFP, Sputnik and Europa Press
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 10, 2024, p. 21
Caracas. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared yesterday before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to testify and present all documentation related to the July 28 elections, amid growing international pressure to release the minutes of the presidential election in which the opposition claims, without evidence, a fraud.
Upon leaving the TSJ, Maduro said that he has earring a conversation with the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, to address the crisis unleashed after the elections, reported the RTP Bolivia channel on social media.
Maduro was the last candidate to appear before the electoral chamber of the TSJ, accused of being at the service of Chavismo. Eight other presidential candidates, a minority, also responded to the call, while the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, who claims victory, did not attend.
Whatever the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela says will be the law of the republic, it will be a holy sentencethe president told reporters upon leaving the hearing.
With Maduro’s appearance before the highest court, the cycle of appearances by representatives of political parties and former candidates who were summoned by the body concludes.
Maduro was proclaimed president-elect with 52 percent of the votes, compared to 43 out of 100 in favor of González Urrutia, but the National Electoral Council (CNE) did not publish the details of the vote count, alleging a hack of the voting system. Twelve days later, it has still not done so.
The opposition denounced fraud and claimed to have captured 80 percent of the records, which they say show the victory of González Urrutia, a discreet ambassador who represented María Corina Machado in the presidential elections after she was disqualified from holding public office.
In this context, opposition leader Machado offered guarantees, safe-conducts and incentives to the Chavista leader for a negotiated transition of power; in this case, the regime that was defeated in this presidential election,” he said in an interview with the AFP news agency.
We are determined to move forward in a negotiationthe leader insisted. It will be a complex, delicate transition process, in which we will unite the entire nation.Maduro ruled out any contact with the opposition leader. The only one who has to negotiate with Machado in this country is the Attorney General. He should turn himself in to justice and face the crimes he committed. This is really the only negotiation that can be done here.said the ruler, who called the policy fugitive from justice.
Protests broke out across the country after the election results were announced, resulting in at least 24 deaths, according to human rights organizations, and more than 2,200 arrests, according to Maduro. The president said, however, that he was willing to call for a referendum. dialogue to the 38 parties in the country, including the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), the force that supported González Urrutia.
Brutal cyber attack
The 61-year-old president was represented by state attorney Reinaldo Muñoz and members of his cabinet. Outside the court, supporters gathered to back him.
I have answered the questions that were legally put to me. I have not evaded any questions from the judges.he noted.
International observers, such as the Carter Center, agreed on the projections of the opposition victory, while the United States – which recognized González Urrutia’s victory – and the European Union, which called for a independent verification of the process and does not recognize the official results, and Latin American countries, including Maduro allies such as Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, requested the publication of the minutes.
The Carter Center has made its farewell through the sad door of lies in this electoral storythe ruler concluded. The cyber attack was brutal: 30 million attacks per minute on the electronic systems of the National Electoral Council (CNE) and Venezuela.
The president also declared that he was on the phone 24 hours a day, every day for a call with Presidents Petro (Colombia), da Silva (Brazil) and López Obrador (Mexico).
A conversation between the leaders scheduled for these days was cancelled, according to Maduro, due to agenda problems.
CNE President Elvis Amoroso appeared before the court on Monday and claimed to have delivered all the requested material: the minutes of the vote counts from the polling stations, the final tally and a copy of the proclamation of Maduro as the winner.
The president of the Supreme Court, Caryslia Rodríguez, reported that the material will be reviewed within 15 days, but it is extendable.
González Urrutia justified his absence before the court due to the absolute vulnerability due to defenselessness and violation of due process.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International (AI) called on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, to publish a preventive statement to warn of possible actions against those responsible for crimes against international law that have been committed after the presidential elections in Venezuela.
AI’s Director of Research, Advocacy, Policies and Campaigns, Erika Guevara Rosas, denounced the death of dozens of people at the hands of security forces and pro-government armed groups, as well as the arbitrary detention of more than 2,000 people in just a few days, simply for opposing or being perceived as opposing the government of Nicolás Maduro.
