Venezuela election: Witness reveals exclusive details about flight with barred former presidents

Not quite. On Friday night (26), Brazilian and international media outlets reported that the plane carrying the four former Latin American presidents: Mireya Moscoso (Panama); Vicente Fox (Mexico); Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (Costa Rica), who were supposed to be election observers in the country, was prevented from entering Venezuela.

The truth is that these politicians have never even left Panama. Although there is a conflict of information, the investigation carried out by journalist Mayara Paixão, in S. Paulo Newspaperrecords that these former leaders were not accredited as international observers and would come to the country invited by the pseudo-candidate Maria Corina Machado, who uses the figure of Edmundo González to circumvent her disqualification in the country.

International analyst Amanda Harumy was on this flight and told us exclusively The communication what actually happened. First, he says, the flight was delayed by about 50 minutes. At a certain point, the former presidents stood up and began making political speeches in support of Maria Corina Machado’s candidacy.

Check out Amanda Harumy’s story on Instagram

“Vicente Fox was the most verbose, he openly said that the future of the right in Latin America depends on these elections in Venezuela.” The analyst, who has a degree in International Relations and is a PhD candidate in the Postgraduate Program in Latin American Integration (Prolam) at USP, and has extensive experience in international monitoring and observation, believes that the statements were interventionist.

“In my opinion, they were there to hold a rally for Maria Corina Machado. The plane was full of Venezuelans who had come from Miami to vote and American journalists. They joined in calling for Maduro to step down. That is not the role of a former president who is going to follow the electoral process in another country,” he argues.

She also mentioned that the former vice president of Colombia during the government of Iván Duque — a staunch opponent of Chavismo —, Marta Lucía Ramírez, made a heated speech linking the president and candidate for reelection Nicolás Maduro to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.

“Under international law, someone with political weight, such as former ministers or former presidents, cannot say who should win or not. This is international intervention, not observation,” he warned.

Harumy also pointed out that a woman announced that she was with the president of Panama, José Raúl Murillo, who had asked the Latin American politicians to get off the plane because the Maduro government had not allowed them to enter the country. “Later I saw this in the media. But it is very strange… why were they ‘blocked’ before and not at immigration, as would be the norm?”

According to Paixão’s report, it was the control tower in Barranquilla, Colombia, that warned that the flight was prohibited from entering Venezuelan airspace. However, “no official warning from Caracas had been made to Panama” and the Venezuelan air authority denied having imposed any restrictions.

For Amanda, “this is yet another episode in the international campaign to try to discredit the elections in Venezuela, because no one was prevented from entering. I entered, I was on that flight and I am in Caracas!”

Via Comunica On