Venezuelan authorities have rescinded an invitation to the European Union to monitor presidential elections scheduled for July 28, another clear sign that President Nicolas Maduro is unlikely to cede power despite allowing opposition candidates to run.
After months of intensifying repression by the Maduro regime – banning legitimate candidates from voting, jailing political opponents, and cracking down on civil society – the country's electoral authorities surprised many in April by allowing former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez to register as an opposition candidate.
Venezuela's government is hamstrung by U.S. and European Union sanctions on the country's vital oil industry, and some experts say Maduro only allowed Gonzalez to run because it might help persuade Washington and its allies to ease the sanctions.
The council's president, Elvis Amoroso, said in a televised broadcast that the invitation was being revoked until the EU lifted the “unilateral and genocidal coercive sanctions imposed on our people.”
“It would be immoral to allow their participation, knowing their neocolonial and interventionist practices against Venezuela,” he added.
In a statement, the EU said it “deeply regrets the unilateral decision” of the Electoral Council and called on the government to reconsider its decision.
Venezuela's economy collapsed nearly a decade ago, triggering one of the largest exodussions in Latin American history, with more than 7 million Venezuelans abandoning the country, contributing to a surge of northward migration that has become a major theme in the U.S. presidential election.
Three domestic opinion polls showed majorities of respondents planned to vote for Gonzalez, but there was widespread doubt whether Maduro would make such a vote public or accept it if it were made public.
The Maduro regime has already arrested and jailed 10 opposition members this year, while five others are facing arrest warrants and are hiding out in the Argentine embassy in Caracas.
The congressional proposal also allows the government to halt opposition campaigns at any time. Many Venezuelans living abroad cannot register to vote because of costly and cumbersome procedures.
Maduro, 61, is the political heir to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez's Movement for Socialism and has consolidated power since first becoming president in 2013. He has functional control over Congress, the army, police, the judicial system, the National Electoral Commission, the country's budget and much of the media, as well as violent paramilitary groups known as colectivos.
He and his associates are also accused of systematic human rights violations that amount to crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and sexual violence.