The Parliament wants “appropriate” European sanctions – already adopted against seven Venezuelan officials – to be “extended to those mainly responsible for worsening the political, social, economic and humanitarian crisis, namely the president (Maduro), the vice-president, the minister of defence and the members of the high military command”, according to a common resolution by the EPP, ECR and ALDE Groups adopted on Thursday 8 February (see EUROPE 11944).
MEPs recommend “new diplomatic and economic measures”, especially against the state-owned oil company PDVSA, if the human rights situation grows worse. They also invite the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to “open investigations into human rights violations perpetrated by the Venezuelan regime”.
Parliament deplores the decision taken by the Venezuelan Supreme Court to ban representatives of the political opposition, the Mesa de la unidad Democratica (MUD), from running for the presidential elections due to be held on Sunday 22 April.
In the autumn of 2017, Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to the opposition and to the political prisoners in Venezuela (see EUROPE 11925 and 11892).
On Tuesday 6 February, during the plenary session debate, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini reiterated that the sanctions adopted by the Council against seven Venezuelan leaders were the first of the kind aimed at a Latin American country. “No artificial conditions should be imposed to limit participation of political parties”, she stressed.
José Salafranca Sanchez-Neyra (EPP, Spain) took the view that Parliament should again “step up its tone” given the Maduro regime’s shift to authoritarianism. Ramon Jauregui Atondo (S&D, Spain) noted the “failure” of Maduro’s Chavist revolution. “As I see it, socialism equals equality but also freedom”, he added. Speaking on behalf of the Greens/EFA, Ernest Urtasun of Spain expressed regret that the resolution brandishes a stick rather than insisting on the importance of “dialogue”. Javier Couso Permuy (GUE/NGL, Spain) was highly critical of what he said were “unilateral and partisan” European sanctions which are “direct sabotage of discussion”. Jean-Luc Schaffhauser (ENF, France), for his part, said Venezuela is above all a victim of United States’ “imperialism”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)