VenEconomy: What is Venezuela's Government So Afraid Of? From the Editors of VenEconomy Latin American Herald Tribune June 22, 2015
Eight Brazilian senators traveled to Venezuela, but the visit was sabotaged by the Government
A leitmotif of the Bolivarian government in the past 16 years has been to invoke the sovereignty of the peoples and the non-interference in internal affairs, so it can evade observation of the international system with regard to any topic, including drug-trafficking, terrorism, the electoral system and human rights.
In spite of this, Venezuela today is perceived by nearly all international institutions as: 1) A country that protects drug-trafficking activities, which serves as a route for the transit of drugs to Europe and the U.S. 2) A country that hides and supports terrorists of FARC, ELN, ETA and other extremist organizations. 3) A country without rule of law, where electoral processes are little transparent and credible due to the lack of autonomy of the Electoral Power, a fact that weakens democratic institutions. 4) A country where the human rights of citizens are constantly violated, particularly of those who disagree with government policies, and fight for the rescue of democratic rights and freedoms.
The violation of human rights in Venezuela has reached such a point that international human right bodies, democratic governments, former presidents from the region and parliaments from different countries have turned their eyes to Venezuela in recent months. Eyes that fully disapprove what Nicolás Maduro and his people are doing, even though their intransigence has only exposed to the world with strong evidence the dictatorial nature of the Venezuelan government.
This was the case, for example, of former presidents Andrés Pastrana (Colombia), Jorge Quiroga (Bolivia) and Felipe González (Spain), who traveled to Venezuela in an attempt to pay a visit to Leopoldo López, Daniel Ceballos and other political prisoners without success due to the arbitrary and illegal refusal of the Government. These three former presidents, along with two other dozens of them, have no doubt that the Maduro government has fallen in excesses and violations against human rights, and they are telling the world.
Last weekend, eight Brazilian senators (from the foreign affairs committee of the Brazilian Congress) traveled to Venezuela in order to visit the prison facilities and check the situation of the political prisoners, with the consent and support of their own government and supposedly authorized by the Venezuelan government.
But the visit was sabotaged by the Government using the same "modus operandi" as with all the peaceful demonstrations of the Venezuelan opposition: the deployment of civil attack groups. This way, these organized group of violent supporters of the Venezuelan regime prevented the Brazilian senators from making it to Caracas from the Maiquetía airport, as they blocked the roads and caused damage to the vehicle they were riding in. After several hours of confrontations, the Brazilian parliamentarians were forced to return to their country and requested President Dilma Rousseff to express her rejection for this aggression against them.
But, as it has become sadly customary with the rulers of Venezuela's "allied" countries, Rousseff showed her solidarity with her Venezuelan comrade and described the visit of the Brazilian delegation as "shameful" for being "an interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela." In addition, the government of Maduro denied having sabotaged the visit of the senators and accused "national and international right-wing groups" for attempting a "media stunt created out of lies."
But, since the sun cannot be covered with a finger, neither can the undemocratic and dictatorial nature of Venezuela's government.
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