Venezuela on Tuesday rescinded its invitation to EU observers to its July presidential elections and called for sanctions to be lifted.
Elvis AmorosoThe president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) demanded on Tuesday that the EU “must proceed with the complete lifting of the unilateral and genocidal coercive sanctions imposed on our people and end its hostile stance towards Venezuela.”
Amoroso said EU representatives are not welcome in the South American country.
The CNE made the decision on the basis of “the country's sovereignty” and taking into account the “immeasurable economic damage” caused to its people by the sanctions.
Moreover, he said, these punitive measures are affecting “the health of children and the elderly.”
The EU introduced sanctions against Venezuela in 2017. According to Brussels, the measures include an “embargo on arms and domestic revolt equipment” and “travel bans and asset freezes against 54 officials responsible for human rights violations and the undermining of democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela.”
The CNE's announcement came about two weeks after the EU temporarily lifted sanctions against four officials linked to the electoral authorities, including Amoroso.
However, the Venezuelan government and President Amoroso rejected the measures as insufficient and called for all sanctions to be lifted.
President Nicolas Maduro is seeking a third term in power in the July 28 election, facing off against Edmundo González Urrutia, a longtime diplomat from the opposition coalition Unidad Venezuela.
Urrutia was nominated to replace expelled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in an election that critics say was neither free nor fair.
Venezuela has been mired in a severe political and economic crisis for years, and poverty and violence have driven more than seven million people to leave the country in recent years, most of them to Colombia, according to UN figures.
