“We are going to hold elections come rain or shine, with or without the opposition. In Venezuela there will be presidential elections, and the people will go out by the millions to vote. In elections what matters is the people,” stated President Nicolás Maduro.
In a press conference offered Thursday,February 15, from the Miraflores Presidential Palace, the Head of State ratified the decision to hold the elections on April 22, stressing: “If the opposition does not register, what will happen in Venezuela? There will be elections and there will be a legitimate President-elect who will govern the country until 2025.”
“What will happen to the opposition? Only they in Washington know,” Maduro noted.
This would not be the first time that the Venezuelan right has withdrawn from an election.“We have had an opposition that improvises and it goes badly for them when they do; when they lose the election, they scream fraud; when they know they are going to lose elections, they withdraw,” he added, as reported by AVN.
The Venezuelan president also explained that the April 22 elections have the broadest guarantees, as had been agreed with opposition sectors at the negotiating table in Santo Domingo. The opposition party refused at the last minute to sign the peace agreement.
Meanwhile, the Head of State announced that his government and that of Colombia are planning a ministerial meeting on border security, whose date will be defined next weekend.
The objective, he said, will be “to establish a peace and security plan for the entire border area,” especially on the border between Táchira state (Venezuela) and the department of Norte de Santander (Colombia).
Regarding the United States threat to impose an oil embargo on the South American nation, Maduro assured that there are other markets where Venezuela can trade its crude oil and derivatives.
(Granma)