He calls for international solidarity against the “brutal repression” of the Maduro Government
The Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González has called on the world’s democracies to support a democratic, peaceful and negotiated transition towards the change that the presidential elections of July 28 in his country overwhelmingly indicated: “The whole world benefits from a democratic Venezuela.”
González participated this Monday in the ‘World in Progress Barcelona’ conference organized by Prisa, where he gave a lecture on ‘Venezuela: national crisis, continental challenge’.
In his speech he made a “call for active solidarity from the world’s democracies” to exert pressure and promote a dialogue with those who now have control of the Venezuelan State, based, he said, on authoritarianism.
“BRUTAL ESCALATION OF REPRESSION”
González has assured that the proposal for dialogue that his candidacy has proposed “has been answered with a brutal escalation of repression with more than 2,000 detainees, among them 158 children,” but he has warned that this response will not divert them from a purpose that, he maintains, is supported by the majority of Venezuelans, who have left polarization behind.
The opposition candidate has referred to a “convulsed world” that is not at peace, in which non-conventional threats to security are multiplying, so that a security failure in a hospital in China can create a health crisis in Europe.
A GLOBALIZED WORLD
“In such a globalized international context, the problems of one country affect us all, the interconnection of societies is so intense that it contributes to increasing international insecurity,” said the speaker.
ADVANCE OF AUTOCRACY
He therefore frames the situation in Venezuela as an example of how democracies are threatened “by the dangerous advance of autocracy” as a result of this globalization.
“The world is experiencing an authoritarian reversal. Populism is the first symptom of this disease, it captures people’s discontent to generate growing polarization that perpetuates power,” Edmundo González stressed.
He assured that 8% of the global population “lives in systems considered full democracies, and even they are not safe from the global authoritarian regression,” after indicating that the consequences of the situation in Venezuela are observed inside and outside its territory.
“AUTHORITATIVE DRIFT”
González recalled that the executive power has controlled the rest of the institutions for 25 years and that the “authoritarian drift”, supported by the resources generated by the oil industry, has facilitated a radical change in the geopolitical strategy that has already led the current Government to forge alliances with anti-democratic actors, which is why Venezuela is, he says, increasingly isolated.
All of this has reduced the GDP in the last 10 years by 70%, with consequences for public services, although according to González “there are reasons for optimism. Venezuela has the potential to recover in record time, it is a country with immense resources to explore” and with a solid democratic tradition deeply rooted in its political culture, he stressed.
