Fraud in Venezuela: What are Pedro Sánchez and Ursula Von der Leyen waiting for?

This Saturday marks six days since Nicolás Maduro committed electoral fraud in the July 28 presidential elections in Venezuela.

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It was already clear that Maduro would commit another electoral fraud, having already done so twice. Today, the evidence of this fraud is overwhelming. The Venezuelan democratic opposition has published a website listing 24,532 electoral records (81.70% of the total), with 67% of the votes for the opposition candidate Edmundo González and 30% for Maduro. To date, the regime has refused to publish the election records despite numerous international calls to that end.

On Friday, the foreign affairs committees of the parliaments of the United States, Armenia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine issued a joint statement stating: "we do not recognize the National Electoral Council’s (CNE) fraudulent and unverifiable declaration that Maduro won re-election as a legitimate representation of the Venezuelan people’s will." The statement adds:

"Amid this struggle, the democratic opposition has released an estimated 80% of the paper vote tallies from across the nation, revealing a resounding electoral victory for Edmundo González. This data is a representation of the voices of the Venezuelan people—voices that cannot be silenced by fraud or intimidation. The National Electoral Council’s refusal to provide transparent documentation only deepens the crisis of legitimacy surrounding the Maduro regime."

As a Spanish and European citizen, I am ashamed to see that the names of Spain and the European Union do not appear in this statement. Yesterday, Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox (the third most voted party in Spain), published a message stating the following:

"The opposition to Maduro's narco-regime shows clear evidence of electoral fraud. Spain and the European Union incomprehensibly continue to refuse to recognise Edmundo González as the elected and legitimate president of the Republic of Venezuela. There is no possible equidistance between the brave people who heroically fight for the freedom of their people and the criminal who subjugates them through violence and oppression. Either with the people or with the tyrant."

What are the socialist Pedro Sánchez and Ursula Von der Leyen (of the European People's Party) waiting for to speak out about Venezuela? How many more murders and kidnappings will Maduro have to commit before the Spanish government and the European Commission condemn this dictator and recognize Edmundo González as the legitimate winner of the elections in Venezuela? The delay of Pedro Sánchez and Ursula von der Leyen only benefits the Maduro regime, which could have been preparing a massive falsification of electoral records for days.

This unjustifiable delay in condemning a new electoral fraud in Venezuela by Sánchez and Von der Leyen can only be explained in political and ideological terms. Sanchez is a socialist like Maduro and has communists in his government who are allies of Maduro, communists who were already quick to validate the new electoral fraud of the Venezuelan socialist dictatorship. In turn, Von der Leyen is allied with the socialists and maintains a socialist, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, as foreign affairs commissioner. This is what a new pact between the European People's Party and the socialists has served for: to continue giving precious time to a criminal tyrant like Maduro.

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Photo: La Moncloa. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a German centrist, during a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, at La Moncloa palace on July 31, 2019.