Nicolas Maduro carried out a new exercise in Bolivarian diplomacy this Wednesday, decreeing the expulsion of the ambassador of the European Union (EU) in Caracas and ordering his comptroller to disqualify the opposition leader Juan Guaido for 15 years and 27 deputies of the legitimate National Assembly (AN) of 2015.

The son of Chavez rounded off his provocation against Brussels by delivering notes of protests to the diplomats who head the embassies of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain, who has Juan Fernandez Trigo, former ambassador to Cuba, as Charge d’Affaires. The Chavista foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, applied all the revolutionary pageantry in the delivery of the warning letters to the five diplomats, even emphasizing his scolding tone against the European ambassador, the Portuguese Isabel Brilhante, who welcomed his expulsion with evident regret. They are atomic bombs that they launch against Venezuela, which defends itself with dignity and makes a sovereign decision,” said Arreaza, who also pontificated each of the diplomats, in addition to giving them a copy of the Bolivarian Constitution and a letter from the United Nations.

In this way, the revolutionary government took only 48 hours to decree the expulsion of the EU ambassador, who has 72 hours to leave the country, a path that other ambassadors, such as the Spanish Jesús Silva, the German or the British. In fact, Silva was expelled for three months in 2018 after the first European sanctions against Chavista leaders, which provoked the irate reaction of Diosdado Cabello, number 2 of the revolution. The EU regretted deeply this decision that will only isolate Venezuela internationally. We ask that this decision be reversed.  In June last year, Maduro also ordered Brilhante’s expulsion but rectified after threatening Brussels with retroactive measures.

“We sympathize with the European ambassador, who has always demonstrated in favor of human rights and democracy in Venezuela on behalf of Europe. The dictator’s arrogance isolates him more from the world and tries to drag the country with him, Guaido reacted.

In this way, Maduro heeded the request made on Tuesday by the National Assembly (AN) arising from the fraudulent elections in December, a way to empower a legislative body unknown to Western democracies and most of the countries in the region. The deputies of the revolution went further in their claim and also requested that the existence of the EU office in Caracas be reconsidered. The closure of these offices would directly threaten the humanitarian aid programs that are being developed under European supervision amid the pandemic and the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

I raise both my hands so that the EU representative declares himself a person not pleasant, Harangued Jorge Rodriguez, the president of the Chavista AN, made up of 256 revolutionary parliamentarians, one from the Communist Party and 20 from the opposition to the measure manufactured by the regime.

EU SANCTIONS

The Chavista deputies thus repudiated the new sanctions against Bolivarian leaders, including judges of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), rectors of the National Electoral Council (CNE), the military, and the police. Among the measures taken against all those sanctioned is the ban on traveling to European territory, as well as the freezing of assets.

The new sanctions are accused of undermining the electoral rights of the opposition and the democratic functioning of the National Assembly and serious violations of human rights and restrictions of fundamental freedoms. With them are 55 those sanctioned by the EU. In this round, Commander Remigio Ceballos stands out, number two in the Army and a key piece among the military who support Maduro. Next to him are three division and brigade generals, at the head of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim) and two police chiefs, including the director of the dreaded Special Forces (FAES), considered extermination battalions by United Nations.

On this occasion, the EU has charged with special emphasis against the judges of the Supreme Court and the rectors of the National Electoral Council (CNE), the revolutionary bodies that persecute the opposition and that also carried out the fraud of the December parliamentary elections. The new diplomatic scuffle coincides with the disqualification of opposition leaders, and it is not by chance. Elvis Amoroso, comptroller of the Republic and who is part of the personal circle of the president town, argued in his opinion that none of the disqualified presented the sworn declaration of patrimony.

It is these actions of the dictatorship that close the door to free elections, our fight is to recover them, claimed Guaidó, who was already disqualified in 2019 a few weeks after launching his challenge against the Chavista regime. Among those disabled on this occasion are leaders of great weight in the democratic unit, both exiled abroad and from Guaidó’s closest circle in Caracas. At the head of the chancellor Julio Borges, brothers Juan Pablo and Tomas Guanipa (vice president of the AN and ambassador in Colombia), Freddy Guevara (former parliamentary vice president), and Carlos Paparoni awarded on Tuesday by the US government for their fight against Chavista corruption.