The United States considers that the arrest of opponent Freddy Guevara threatens the credibility of the November elections in Venezuela

Venezuelan opposition politician arrested President Nicolas Maduro questions the credibility of the elections for mayors and governors Expected in November in the South American country, a senior US official said Tuesday.

Kevin O’ReillyDeputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, consider it “Totally unacceptable” the arrest of Venezuelan opposition leader Freddy Guevara on Monday in Caracas, The defendants are accused of “terrorism” and “treason”.

He stressed that this kind of work threaten the transparency of the electoral process. Surely blocking Maduro’s political opposition makes it so It is difficult to show that Maduro and his supporters will allow fair competition.”O’Reilly said during a forum on regional elections in Venezuela organized by the Atlantic Council.

The United States does not know Maduro’s mandate which began in 2019 and the mandate of the elected legislative assembly in 2020. As a fraudulent election result, it promotes “restore democracyIn Venezuela through electionsFree s justice“.

In this sense, O’Reilly stressed the importance of the entire electoral process, Not just voting specifically, meeting internationally recognized standards.

“Certainly based on what happened yesterday [con Guevara]And the I’m a bit skeptical of having such good intentions to let this happen“, pointed out.

O’Reilly emphasized The need for “credible, inclusive and transparent” local, parliamentary and presidential electionsThis allows Venezuelans to choose their own path, whatever it may be.”

“So, everything We need to see tangible progress in these critical areas“, claimed.

Arrest Guevara, a close collaborator with opposition leader Juan Guaido, happened when the opposition and Maduro’s government plan to resume negotiations.

Guaidó, recognized The interim Venezuelan president of the United States and fifty countries described the arrest of his colleague as a “kidnapping”.

Guevara was part of opposition group Last week, he met with a delegation from the European Union Studying the possibility of sending an election monitoring committee For those elections scheduled for November 21.

On his part, the opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez Share via Zoom His party’s press conference, People’s Will, after his partner was kidnapped Freddy Guevara. “He is missing. We don’t know where he is”, he announced. In addition, he said:It is time for protests to resume in Venezuela as is happening in Cuba.”

“I want to send a special greeting to all the family of Freddy (Guevara). We are many families at Voluntad Popular who have been through this situation. We have more than 500 detainees in the Popular Will.” All our party leaders were imprisoned, persecuted and exiledLopez began his intervention.

Then he said: “I know Freddy well. He is a friend and partner for many years. Together we founded Voluntad Popular. He is one of the people with the highest level of commitment to seeing a free Venezuela. He made the decision to stay in Venezuela knowing he was in danger of imprisonment“.

(With information from AFP)

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