ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: Venezuela : Un vote qui appelle le retour immédiat à la paix et au dialogue national
by PCF
Translated Wednesday 23 August 2017, by
41.53% of Venezuelans were able to vote on 30 July, despite the violence engendered by those opposed to President Nicolas Maduro. The opposition refused to present candidates in the election to the Constituent Assembly, and hoped to prevent the election by making the situation uncontrollable. Ten people died on polling day, bringing the death toll as a result of the last four months of violent political confrontation to nearly 130.
Asking for peace came at a high price for the Venezuelans. The day before polling day, masked militants, claiming to defend democracy, destroyed campaign materials by burning them in a public square.
The opposition is already calling for action to be taken on Monday and Wednesday, when the Constituent Assembly is inaugurated. The opposition is primarily supported by the American government, which referred to the Sunday election as a “step toward dictatorship” and which again threatens to impose sanctions, and also supported by Colombian authorities, a country to which one million Venezuelans have imigrated in order to escape the violence and to look for work.
All this is continuing to throw oil on the fire; it is the proper role of the international community to set up mediation sessions (guided by the UN) to restore peace and security in Venezuela.
The French Communist Party, partisan for peace and national dialog, calls upon the French government to act firmly in the direction of peace, rather than to follow in the tracks of President Trump, who continues to multiply his aggressive declarations and decisions.
The PCF addresses itself to the forces for peace, for social justice and for Venezuelan democracy, and affirms the necessity of an immediate halt to the violence toward the suffering people of Venezuela.