(Caracas) The Venezuelan parliament is examining on Tuesday a draft “law against fascism”, considered liberticidal by human rights defenders, at a time when the opposition, which claims victory in the presidential election of July 28, is urging President Nicolás Maduro to “step aside”.
“Mr. Nicolás Maduro, respect what all Venezuelans have decided […] You and your government need to step aside […] “I am ready for dialogue,” said Edmundo González Urrutia, a discreet diplomat who replaced opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was declared ineligible, as presidential candidate, on social media.
“Every day that you obstruct the democratic transition, Venezuelans suffer from a country in crisis and without freedom. Clinging to power only exacerbates the suffering of our people. Our time has come,” said González Urrutia, who has not been seen publicly since the beginning of the month.
Mme Machado, who appeared at an opposition rally on Saturday, and Mr González Urrutia are living in hiding while prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against them, including for “incitement to disobedience of the law, incitement to insurrection, criminal association”.
PHOTO FEDERICO PARRA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado
Attorney General Tarek William Saab threatened to indict them on Monday.
The announcement of Mr Maduro’s re-election for a third term sparked spontaneous protests that were brutally repressed. According to official sources, 25 people died, 192 were injured and 2,400 arrested.
“Strength of God”
The National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified Maduro’s victory with 52% of the vote in early August, without providing the exact count or polling station minutes. It claims to have been prevented from doing so by an act of computer hacking, the reality of which is doubted by the opposition and many observers.
According to the opposition, which made public the electoral documents obtained through its poll workers, Mr González Urrutia won more than 60% of the vote.
Mr Maduro, for his part, has continued to repeat that he is facing an attempted “coup d’état”.
“They will never be able to defeat us, because we carry within us the strength of history, the strength of the homeland, the strength of God. We have won,” he told his supporters on Sunday.
The unicameral parliament, where the government has 256 of the 277 deputies (the opposition having boycotted the 2020 legislative elections) is examining on Tuesday a draft law “against fascism”, the second text in a series that the government is preparing in the wake of Maduro’s contested re-election.
Officially, it is about better “defending the people”, but many observers see it as liberticidal measures intended to repress.
Last week, the National Assembly adopted a law on NGOs, which was also heavily criticized by human rights defenders.
“Offensive phase”
The “law against fascism, neo-fascism and similar expressions” takes “the best of European laws relating to the phenomenon of Nazism and fascism and we adapt it to Venezuela,” assures President Maduro.
“We will not allow fascism to take power in Venezuela,” he vowed Monday, proclaiming: “we are in a phase of offensive and expansion of our forces.”
The government also promised a law on social networks in the following days, while the X network was suspended for ten days and the president launched a boycott of the WhatsApp messaging service, both accused of inciting hatred.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called on the authorities last week not to “adopt these and any other laws that undermine civic and democratic space.”
“In a climate of fear, it is impossible to implement democratic principles and protect human rights,” added his spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani.