The White House will closely follow what happens on Sunday, July 28 in the South American country. A senior US official pointed out the importance of the international presence in Venezuelan territory.
USA urged Nicolas Maduro to allow entry to Venezuela of a group of former presidents who traveled on Friday to participate as electoral observers in the elections next Sunday and whose plane could not take off from Panama due to the blockade of Venezuelan airspace and the restrictions imposed by the current president.
The flight departing from Tocumen Airport had the former Mexican president on board Vicente Foxthe former Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso, the former Bolivian president Jorge Quirogathe former president of Costa Rica Miguel Angel Rodriguez and the former Colombian vice president Marta Lucia Ramirez.
“We encourage the Venezuelan authorities to reconsider their decision and allow more international presence to observe the elections.especially with these illustrious former presidents of the region,” said a senior official in the Joe Biden administration, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
Closing of the Venezuelan campaign.JPG
In addition, authorities in the North American country have already made it clear that they plan to calibrate their sanctions policy against Venezuela depending on what happens in the presidential elections on July 28. There is no doubt that Washington will closely follow the elections and what happens in the transition period after the polls close.
A flight with former presidents heading to Venezuela was prevented from taking off from Panama
He President of Panama, Jose Raul Mulinoreported this Friday that A Copa Airlines flight bound for Caracas was prevented from taking off from the Central American country in which several former presidents traveled to participate as electoral observers in the vote to elect the president of Venezuela for the next few years.
“Efforts to prevent illustrious presidents from across the region from observing the electoral process are deeply unfortunate,” The official said that “his presence would give the international community and the Venezuelan people guarantees that the elections are representative of the will of the voters.”
Following confirmation of the incident, the Panamanian Foreign Ministry reported that it had summoned the diplomatic representative of Venezuela in the country after the plane was not authorized to take off from the international airport of the Panamanian capital.
Source: Ambito
