Concern grows as Venezuela blocks election observers

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is seeking re-election to a third six-year term amid accusations of harassing the opposition. (AP Photo)

CARACAS: Concerns grew Friday over the fairness of Venezuela’s presidential election, with Caracas accused of blocking international observers from arriving for Sunday’s vote, including a delegation of former presidents.

In a latest blow to an already tense election campaign, Panama announced that its authorities had blocked a flight carrying former Latin American leaders – all critics of President Nicolas Maduro – from leaving its international airport.

Colombian officials said they were denied entry at Caracas airport, as were conservative Spanish lawmakers and Chilean senators.

Socialist Maduro, 61, will seek re-election on Sunday for a third six-year term amid accusations of harassment of the opposition by an increasingly authoritarian regime.

Last year, his government agreed with the opposition to hold free and fair elections in 2024, with international observers present – ​​securing a temporary easing of sanctions from the United States.

But he has since reneged on some of his conditions and loyalist institutions have banned opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from running against him.

On Friday, Panama announced that its former president Mireya Moscoso, as well as former leaders Miguel Angel Rodriguez of Costa Rica, Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia and Vicente Fox of Mexico, had had their planes detained.

The group, which also included former Colombian Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez, disembarked to allow the plane, carrying many Venezuelan voters, to take off.

Panamanian authorities said the delay was affecting several flights to and from Venezuela.

Panama has summoned Venezuela’s diplomatic representative in the country to explain.

Diosdado Cabello, vice president of Venezuela’s ruling party, warned this week that former presidents would be expelled if they came, calling them “enemies of this country.”

“This is a bad sign for Sunday,” Fox said Friday in an interview with Mexican radio station Grupo Formula. “We were thrown off the plane thanks to blackmail and pressure from Venezuela.”

Colombian radio reported that Senator Angelica Lozano was denied entry into the country upon arrival in Caracas and was then deported.

In Spain, the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) said a delegation of ten parliamentarians had been arrested in Caracas by “the tyrant Maduro.”

The party leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, called on X for their “immediate release” and the intervention of the Spanish government.

Sources at the foreign ministry told AFP that the party had been informed that its request to observe the vote had been refused by Caracas.

“Chavismo does not want witnesses,” said PP spokesman Miguel Tellado, referring to the populist movement created by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

“He doesn’t want the international community to have eyes and ears in Venezuela this weekend,” he added on X.

Caracas also this week withdrew its invitation to former Argentine President Alberto Fernandez to observe the vote after he publicly urged Maduro to accept the result even if he loses.

It had previously cancelled the invitation of experts from the European Union, while authorising the presence of observers from the United Nations and the US-based Carter Centre.

” Bloodbath “

Maduro will face little-known former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 74, on Sunday, who replaced Machado on the ballot and is expected to win by a wide margin, according to polls.

Analysts, observers and many opposition supporters doubt that Maduro, who relies on a loyal electoral apparatus, military leadership, courts and state institutions, will let him do so.

Maduro has already warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses, earning the wrath of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said: “Maduro must learn this: if you win, you stay. If you lose, you leave.”

On Friday, Argentina’s right-wing libertarian President Javier Milei, at odds with many of his left-wing counterparts in the region, said in a message to Machado that his country supported Venezuela “in this struggle for freedom” and called for respect for the right to vote.

Foro Penal, an NGO that defends the rights of “political prisoners” in Venezuela, has reported the arrest of 135 people linked to the opposition campaign since January.

Forty-seven people are still being held.

Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was rejected as illegitimate by most Western and Latin American countries.

But years of tough U.S. sanctions and other pressure have failed to dislodge the president, who enjoys the support of Cuba, Russia and China.

The formerly wealthy oil state has seen its GDP fall by 80% in less than a decade, forcing some seven million of its citizens to flee.

Most Venezuelans live on just a few dollars a month, in a poor health and education system and facing severe electricity and fuel shortages.

The government blames US sanctions for the situation, but observers say it all started with deep-rooted corruption and mismanagement.