Guaidó spokesperson: "Borrel has admitted that the European Union cannot support the elections in Venezuela"

The United Nations mission which investigated the situation on the ground concluded that the Venezuelan security forces had committed systematic human rights violations. The report points directly to Nicolás Maduro and his number two, Diosdado Cabello. It also points to the President of the National Constituent Assembly and several of the ministers: the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Defence. In addition, the heads of intelligence and 45 officials of the Venezuelan regime have also been accused.

If one reads the report one is completely shocked. There is talk of arbitrary decisions, of forced disappearances, of acts of torture (especially in interrogations to extract confessions). In short... If we move on to the chapter on sexual violence, we can't even talk about it, the listeners of the programme Atalayar can get an idea and read the report on their own.

We have with us in Atalayar, via telephone, the representative of the presidency of Juan Guaidó in Spain, Antonio Ecarri Bolívar. Don Antonio, good evening!

Good evening, it is a pleasure to greet you, congratulations!

Likewise, and thanks for joining us tonight. I wanted to ask you, although we have already heard it from the president in charge, Guaidó, what is the first feeling you have when reading the pages of this report?

Well, there are two very important aspects to this report. The first is that it relates what we Venezuelans have been denouncing over the last twenty years at all levels. 
But in addition, we think about what it does not say. What the report does not say is what is happening at the moment and continues to happen in Venezuela.

This Independent International Mission of the United Nations for the determination of facts about the violation of human rights in Venezuela, issues a 443-page report documenting 223 cases of torture and ill-treatment of more than 2,000 people who have been subjected to inhumane treatment. 

And the most important thing is that, I think this is unprecedented, it points directly to Nicolás Maduro as responsible for these crimes, because they gave the orders for them to be committed. Also to Diosdado Cabello and to the ministers of the Interior and Justice, Néstor Luis Reverol and Vladimir Padrino López.

It should be remembered that last year the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, who incidentally is not someone who can be branded 'ultra-right' because she has been president of Chile and is one of the leaders of the Chilean socialist party, highlighted the systematic violation of human rights. She documented, through all these reports, not only the violation of political rights, but also environmental crimes produced in the Mining Arc in the exploitation of what is called "Blood Gold.

Another important thing, which is like a sword of Damocles, is that the report points out that democratic, free and civilised states of the world should consider taking legal action against individuals responsible for the violations and crimes identified in the report.

This should be done in accordance with their relevant domestic legislation, known as Universal Jurisdiction. This means that there is capacity to judge international crimes regardless of the nationality or the place where the crime was committed, as Augusto Pinochet was once judged.

There is already an International Criminal Court in The Hague that sees these issues...

The International Criminal Court has already had a complaint from several countries in the Americas for a long time. This is a kind of "setback" for this court because with few resources, this UN commission has written this report of more than 400 pages in less than a year. However, the International Criminal Court has years of work and complaints. 

I believe that since 2014 there has been a well-documented complaint and it has not been pronounced. Not even its prosecutor's office.

The question that arises in the face of all this that you are reporting is: is the regime of Nicolás Maduro going to take a report like this for granted or is it going to go ahead? Is it turning a deaf ear to the international community?

This is what it has always done. This case has been denounced since 27 September 2018 by the heads of state of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Paraguay and Peru. Since then, it has been paralysed in the Pre-Trial Chamber to enter the International Criminal Court without any action having been taken for two years. Mainly because of the repeated negligence of the prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who is the prosecutor of the court.

It is impressive that they continue with this attitude. But I would like to tell you that it is also very important that this statement has been made, which is also very timely, because it comes one day before the meeting of the International Contact Group (made up of almost all the countries of Europe and some of the Americas). 
This group, of course, is influenced by this decision. They ratify the need that the only sustainable solution for Venezuela is an inclusive, peaceful and democratic policy through free legislative and presidential elections. Not as they are proposing on 6 December.

The curious thing, Antonio, is that the administration that the UN is accusing with this report is going to organise free elections. Can anyone believe that they can be democratic and free?

Of course not. Neither the International Contact Group, nor the Lima Group, nor the United States, nor all the civilised nations of the world approve of this practice. Except for the Russians, Chinese, Cubans and Belarusians who are in the same situation of violations of fundamental human rights as Venezuela.

Precisely because the last elections were fraudulent, what is going to be said about them after the situation has worsened considerably? To the extent that, on this occasion, a National Electoral Council was appointed behind the back of the National Assembly which, according to the Constitution, has the power to appoint it.

However, it was appointed by a kind of private law firm that Maduro has and an illegal Supreme Court of Justice that was legally rejected by the National Assembly. 

In addition, she has now kidnapped the main political parties. She has been stripped of party symbols and leadership and handed over to regime figureheads. Imagine, can you imagine that someone, for example, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party or the People's Party, would have a court say that now their presidents cannot exercise, and that they will be the ones to decide? This does not enter into the head of any civilised being.

You are right, Antonio, but isn't the empty chair worse? I remember when Pinochet's plebiscite in Chile, everyone said he was going to win and yet the opposition joined in. Let me tell you that many times, the problem in Venezuela is that the personalisms in the leaders of the Venezuelan opposition break this necessary unity...

What is the difference between the elections on December 6, with Maduro also in power, and the elections now? They have learnt their lesson and will not allow an absolute majority, but won't the empty chair be worse?

We won the elections and in the same month of December 2015, between the cocks and midnight, skipping the whole procedure established by the law on the Supreme Court, they appointed some judges by hand who were even members of the same Assembly that had just lost the elections. 

And they also appointed this Supreme Court of Justice. Since then, more than 200 judgments have been handed down that have prevented the decisions of the National Assembly. Not content with this, they convened a National Constituent Assembly that was also illegal and now, in order to call these elections, they took away the addresses of the legal political parties that operate in Venezuela. What is the meaning of this call for elections?

We have to differentiate between Chile and Venezuela, in Chile there was a disgraceful dictatorship, it's true. But they were not criminals in power. Maduro and his government have already taken the decision to, and are being denounced by the UN, commit acts of torture shamelessly, and they are ordering them themselves!

The UN report brings terrible things. There is a thing called "giving titty" to the prisoner. It means that among other things, they put a numbered baseball bat in the prisoner. They throw it at him. And depending on where he picked it up, the number it indicates will be the number of hits he will get in the torture.

The other system of torture is to put a plastic bag on the head and to put tear gas through a hole in that bag to drown the detainee.

There is also another thing they call the "Code 80", when they tell a policeman that he has to comply with the code 80, is that he can kill a person, even if he is already detained inside a dungeon.

Do you think that we can participate in an electoral process with such people?

No, of course not. From here I suppose it's too easy to talk... We remember that commission in which Mr Zapatero and Mr Torrijos and other personalities from outside participated, including the Holy See, which lifted the recall that they had in order to be able to remove the Chavista dictatorship from democratic power and freely. But it did not take place...

And it was left in a state of disarray. Look, this government makes a mockery of everyone. They have made fun of the Holy See, of Zapatero, of everyone who is going to try to mediate...

No more than 15 days ago, Mr Josep Borrell tried to mediate and asked President Guaidó and the G4 (the four parties that control the General Assembly) to give him five proposals for participation in the elections. 

We gave them the five that were elementary: National Electoral Council appointed by the National Assembly, the participation of the leaders of the political parties that had been prevented from participating, an international observation...

He returned saying that these people did not accept any of the proposals... And it was then that he said that, of course, these general elections could not be recognized by the European Union, much less send international observation.

We have to close, thank you very much for your presence in Atalayar Don Antonio.

Thank you very much for letting us tell you what is happening in Venezuela.