Former Latin American presidents propose a common front against the Venezuelan regime

A group of former presidents from Latin America and Spain who gathered at a forum in Miami on Thursday urged their countries’ governments to form a common front to prevent Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from remaining in power after he stole the July presidential election.

The former presidents, who participated in the forum at Miami Dade College, said that Maduro heads one of the darkest dictatorships in the history of Latin America and warned that his remaining in power is a threat to the security and democratic stability of the entire region.

They also stressed that the situation in Venezuela leaves no room for preserving a diplomatic policy of double standards that involve ignoring the dictatorial nature of the regime.

“From the very moment that Nicolás Maduro was unconstitutionally proclaimed president, ignoring the true results of the July 28 elections, he automatically became a dictator,” former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana said before a large audience.

“Ignoring the popular will causes a rupture of the democratic order, and a rupture of the democratic order makes him a usurper of the office of the presidency,” Pastrana added at the event, organized by the group of more than 33 former presidents of Latin America and Spain known as IDEA, the Mezerhane Endowed Chair of Miami Dade College and the Atlantic Institute of Government.

The National Electoral Council of Venezuela, which is tightly controlled by the regime, declared Maduro won the July 28 elections with about 52% of the votes, but the announcement was quickly questioned around the world because the electoral entity has not yet made public the official records of the vote tallies proving that the Venezuelan strongman won.

The Venezuelan opposition did publish the tallies of nearly 80% of the voting stations, and these show that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez was the real winner of the election, with about 68% of the votes.

Participants at Thursday’s event repeatedly reiterated their admiration for the struggle by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, amid constant signs that the regime seeks to arrest her.

At the start of the first debate, IDEA Secretary General Asdrubal Aguiar celebrated that a group of universities, including Miami Dade College and Barry University, have joined other groups in nominating Machado for the Nobel Peace Prize and warned about the dangers she and all dissidents face.

“Venezuela has become a concentration camp,” he said.

In a video presented during the event, Machado herself spoke about what Venezuela is going through, saying its fate is being defined right now. “Today we are in decisive hours. July 28 marked a before and after for Venezuela, and I dare say for the Western Hemisphere.”

Former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar warned about the risks the Americas would face in terms of massive migration from Venezuela if Maduro is allowed to remain in power.

“Venezuela has a regime of terror... because any citizen can be arbitrarily detained, can arbitrarily be deprived of their rights and that affects everyone,” he said. “And if the regime of terror continues, the consequences will be that the number of Venezuelans willing to leave will increase. The regime does not care about this at all. Rather, it will make it easier for people to leave, but this will be destabilizing for the whole region.”

Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga agreed and called for the United States and the European Union to adopt a tougher stance towards the authoritarian regimes in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, saying it is needed to address the continuous threat of another wave of immigrants leaving those countries.

“If Immigration is a concern for the United States, then it should stop giving aspirins to lower the fever, when talking about building a wall and about launching massive deportations, and should start looking for cure to treat the infectious tumor that is Maduro, Ortega and the Castros,” Quiroga said. “Because otherwise they will continue treating the symptoms instead of stopping the infection, which are the troglodyte tyrannies in these places.”