Bogotá (EFE).- The high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, told EFE that the community block is willing to review the personal sanctions against senior Chavismo officials if “the democratic normalization” in Venezuela and there are “free, transparent and inclusive elections”.
“We are even willing to review the personal sanctions that we have applied. The EU does not have economic sanctions that affect the population, but there must be a coordinated process, a calendar process mutually acceptable to the parties,” Borrell said during the international conference on the political process in Venezuela held in Bogotá.
The high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs assured that this “review” would take place because these sanctions:
“They are not eternal, the sanctions are not made to last forever, they are made to make the process of democratic normalization advance.”
In this sense, the executive vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, assured last Friday that since 2015 the country has lost 29,000 million dollars (26,414 million euros at today’s exchange rate) each year due to international sanctions that weigh on the so-called Bolivarian revolution, especially on the state oil company PDVSA.
“Since 2015, the loss has been 232,000 million dollars (…) which meant, at the time, 99% of the income in foreign currency. It is a way of completely annihilating entire towns,” said the official.
Conference in Bogota
Colombian President Gustavo Petro convened the conference in Bogotá to promote the reactivation of dialogues in Mexico between Chavismo and the opposition.
Paused since last November, although none of the parties were invited, only about twenty accompanying countries.
In this regard, the European diplomat assured that they are committed to “promoting negotiations in Mexico” because “there is a window of opportunity that will end up closing if progress is not made more quickly.”
“Venezuelans, the government and the opposition – the more united the opposition, the better – have to reach an agreement to advance democratic normalization, to be able to hold presidential elections that are transparent, free and inclusive,” insisted the former Spanish Foreign Minister, which also pointed out that the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, “cannot choose his opposition.”
“It must be the Venezuelans who choose their leaders and that elections are held on an equal footing, held with guarantees for all,” he said, and in this regard, the EU will also be able to take steps.
opposition union
Likewise, Borrell said that the purpose of the conference he is attending is to “promote the negotiation process.”
And he recalled that he has spoken “many hours” with the Venezuelan opposition “before, during and after Mr. (Juan) Guaidó was recognized as the acting president.”
He also stressed that the opposition’s main problem is that it is not united, something that he believes will make negotiations with the Maduro government difficult.
“I have always reiterated the same message: unity is your main strength and there is too much disunity between you. And it is important to point out that in the negotiation with the Government the opposition has to be as united as possible”, he concluded.