The organization’s stance is a way of adding fuel to the fire of the conflict, abandoning the victims of government violence and prolonging the suffering of millions of people.
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 29 August 2024 — A month has passed since Venezuelans went out to vote en masse on July 28. Since that Sunday, demands have grown for Nicolás Maduro to show all the electoral records, but the voice of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is missing from that broad chorus demanding transparency. The regional entity has not published any document addressing what has happened during these four weeks in the South American country.
CELAC’s silence comes as no surprise. The attempts to reach a consensus among its members on a declaration regarding Venezuela are doomed to fail. On the one hand, the block of those who unconditionally support the current tenant of Miraflores, with Cuba at the head, would block any document that questions the result published by the National Electoral Council (CNE) which proclaims Maduro the winner of the elections.
For their part, Brazil and Colombia are betting on a negotiated solution that includes calling new elections, something that would allow the government party to gain time, tighten the repressive screws and stay in power. A band more in line with Chavismo, including Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, has tougher words and positions against what has already become the most blatant electoral fraud in the recent history of Latin America.
On the one hand, the block of those who unconditionally support the current tenant of Miraflores, with Cuba at the head, would block any document that questions the result.
Seated at the CELAC table, it is unlikely that a message will emerge from this conglomerate that puts the interests of the Venezuelan people above the quarrels between factions. After all, the entity was born mainly from the push of leaders like Hugo Chávez, obsessed with taking ground from the Organization of American States (OAS) and with creating a regional organization that is more docile and silent in the face of human and civil rights violations by the continent’s authoritarian regimes, in the style of the one implemented by his political leader, Fidel Castro. From those gags these complicit silences were born.
Ten years ago, CELAC proclaimed the region a “zone of peace.” In a declaration signed by the presidents of the member countries, its members committed themselves, among other things, to respect equal rights and “the self-determination of peoples.” The document, read by an octogenarian Raúl Castro who was never voted in as a leader at any election, recalled the “principles of peace, democracy, development and freedom” that inspired the creation of the Community. But, in essence, it was a document to avoid foreign demands when, within the borders of a territory, a party or an ideological group imposed a political model on the rest of its fellow citizens, by force and without peaceful paths for a change of course.
The promoters of CELAC thus protected their backs. They spoke of sovereignty, but only understood it at the level of nations, never of individuals.
The promoters of CELAC thus protected their backs. They spoke of sovereignty, but only understood it at the level of nations, never of individuals; they appealed to the commitment of “not intervening, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any other State” to silence any international demand when the leaders cut off civil liberties, hijacked the voice of their people and usurped the representation of an entire population. From those verbal tricks also emerged the current omissions.
CELAC will not speak out in favor of publishing all of Venezuela’s election records, nor will it call on Maduro to listen to the voice of the streets, step down from the presidential chair, and take steps toward a democratic transition. The organization that boasted of having contributed to creating a “zone of peace” has remained silent. Sadly, its silence is a way of adding fuel to the fire of conflict, of abandoning the victims of government violence, and of prolonging the suffering of millions of people.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on DW and is reproduced under license from the author.
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