Caracas does not accept the entry of Vicente Fox and other former presidents because they are not official observers
▲ Former Mexican President Vicente Fox (center), along with former Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso and former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga, denounced that the Venezuelan authorities blocked their trip from Panama to Caracas because they were a group of critics of Nicolás Maduro.Afp Photo
AFP and Sputnik
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, July 27, 2024, p. 23
Panama. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox (2000-2006), along with former presidents of Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002); of Costa Rica, Miguel Angel Rodriguez (1998-2002), and of Panama, Mireya Moscoso (1999-2004), all members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA Group), were unable to travel yesterday from the Panamanian capital to Venezuela as observers of the presidential elections, a function they intended to fulfill without having been invited.
Venezuelan authorities have prevented a group of former Latin American leaders critical of the government of Nicolás Maduro from flying to Caracas to witness tomorrow’s elections in that country, the Panamanian government has denounced.
Panamanian Copa Airlines flight CM-223, which was transporting the four former presidents to Venezuela, was unable to take off from Tocumen Airport due to the blockade of Venezuelan airspaceassured Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on his account on the social network X. The commercial flight was able to depart when the former presidents, who had initially resisted, decided to get off the plane. From there they went to the presidential palace of Panama, where they held a press conference in which they criticized Maduro.
The plane (was) full, completely full, of Venezuelans who were going to vote.”We were in first class and the whole back of the plane, people stood up and started applauding, but when we said goodbye we saw tears, (passengers) crying, telling us: ‘Please stay, don’t go!'” he added.
Whipper-snapper
Following the accusation, Venezuela’s Minister of Communication and Information, Freddy Ñáñez, assured that his country’s airspace is not closed: What this idiot, José Raúl Mulino, says is false. Venezuelan airspace is not closed, which does not mean that the country is exposed to foreign interference. Venezuela respects itself.said Ñanez.
On Wednesday, Diosdado Cabello, vice president of the Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), warned that if the former presidents landed in Caracas they would be expelled. “They are not invited, they are showmen (…). If they show up at the airport, my God! What’s going to happen? We expel them, we expel them, no problem” because They are enemies of this country, they are fascists (…). They are not going to come here to bother us.he said on television.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan government also prohibited the entry of the Spanish delegation of the Popular Party (PP), which traveled at the invitation of the opposition to be part of the observers in the elections, and to which the Venezuelan government informed them that they will be deported.
They expel us from the country, they don’t let us enter Venezuela. Unfortunately, Maduro’s police are relentless.explained Miguel Tellado, one of the members of the delegation.
Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the AFP news agency that the PP had been warned that the Venezuelan authorities had denied its request to observe the elections, despite which it made the trip to Caracas.