Representative Eliot L. Engel, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in which he asks him to urge Venezuelan President not to “block efforts” to hold a recall referéndum this year.
“I applaud the statements you have made in favor of dialogue between the Venezuelan government and opposition (…), dialogue is essential –he wrote in the letter, dated the past 7th of July–. At the same time, I believe that it is critical to ensure that the rule of law is respected in Venezuela. A strong message from the United Nations Secretary General on the referendum would send an important signal and would complement the recent statements by Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro”.
Nearly a month after Almagro invoked the Inter-American Democratic Charter, the 31th of May, the Permanent Council met last June in an extraordinary session with no results, no measures against Venezuelan government. But for the first time there was a quórum for such a meeting. The majority of Member States supported and requested it.
Opposition parties in Venezuela, gathered in the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD), started their way to call for a referéndum by collecting nearly two million signatures, as prescribed by law, and they handed them to the Electoral National Council (CNE in Spanish) last May. CNE demanded a beset with obstacles verification process of the signatures, as they invalidated 600.000 of them. On the 25th of June the MUD made it twice as much it was required by the legal rule.
The next step is a new signature collection, four million signatures, the equivalent to 20% of the electoral register. MUD has urgency to make it this year, just before January 2017, so new elections can be called in case the result is negative for Maduro. According to the Constitution, if the referéndum were to be called after January, the current Vice-president, Aristóbulo Istúriz, close ally of Maduro, would take power until 2019.
These are the exact grounds Engel is using in his letter to Ban Ki Moon.
“I believe that these next steps must take place expeditiously, fairly and in accordance with the country’s constitution. Your voice will be crucial in urging the Venezuelan government to respect the letter and spirit of their constitution by allowing a recall referendum to take place in an expeditious manner”.
This is not the first time representative Engels makes a statement about Venezuela. When Almagro invoked the Inter-American Democratic Charter he supported Almagro’s leadership and said that this action was “ensuring that the OAS carry out its most fundamental duty”
Read the full letter here