Leopoldo López Gil: "Venezuela has been left in the hands of a small oligarchy and the rest of the country impoverished, this cannot coexist much longer".
Leopoldo López Gil, MEP for Spain and father of Venezuelan opponent Leopoldo López, has analysed the news from Venezuela on the elections to be held on the 6th, organised by the illegitimate government of Nicolás Maduro, which has been rejected by more than 60 nations that do not recognise him as president, on Capital Radio's Atalayar programme.
What do you think about this call or rather this electoral fraud called by Nicolás Maduro? It is being rejected worldwide, but it is still being called for the time being.
The truth is that it is a pity that Venezuela is suffering as it is from this deception, another deception by an impostor. This government has been rejected by more than 60 nations that do not recognise either the Presidency of Nicolás Maduro or the calling of these elections. First of all, the elections that led to Maduro being elected president were considered illegitimate and therefore from then on the whole process has deteriorated to such an extent that today we have a country that is absolutely failed. If we take the button of the value of the dollar in Venezuela today exceeds one million bolivars, this means that, if we take into account the three zeros that were taken from the currency since Hugo Chávez came to power, today one dollar is one billion bolivars. This is ridiculous; they have pulverised the currency and consequently destroyed the Venezuelans' purchasing power, driving the population to a level of total and absolute poverty.
Will Venezuelans respond to Nicolas Maduro's call, that is to say, what turnout can be expected, bearing in mind that we cannot trust the results. Do you expect many Venezuelans to turn out for these elections on 6 December?
Unfortunately, Venezuela has a rather authoritarian and militaristic system. We know that at least all those on the official payroll are being threatened and controlled so that on election day they will turn up and vote. Therefore, it is a truly obligatory participation, under total threat. However, all the polls say that the level of voluntary participation will not exceed 25%.
A 25% is logically very little. Counting the foreign vote?
No, the foreign vote does not count because we are not allowed to. Venezuela has not had foreign services for some time and therefore there is no way of expressing any type of precision of consular services or embassies abroad of Venezuela.
The other day his son Leopoldo López, who arrived in Spain a few weeks ago fleeing the Maduro regime, said that if free elections could be held in Bolivia, why couldn't they be held in Venezuela? The fact is that the international community would need to be involved for this to happen
Well, we have to take into account that those who called for elections in Bolivia are precisely the ones who took the person who tried to usurp the elections out of the game. In this way, eight months later, they led the country to free and verifiable elections. In fact, they lost the elections, so we can say that the elections were held in Bolivia, as in any other country, because they are verifiable and nobody can question the results.
Many ask themselves why the Venezuelan opposition does not get together and go to the elections to try and win them.
What happened in December 2015 is totally different, many leaders were precisely allowed to participate who are now banned. The opposition parties were also allowed to organise themselves legitimately, so that they joined together in a single card, with which they obtained 58 per cent of the vote and 75 per cent of representation in the National Assembly. From there came a series of measures by the Executive, the Maduro regime, first to try to invalidate the National Assembly, then to invalidate the performance of the opposition parties, then they imprisoned or expelled many of the political leaders and did not allow these candidates to run in the elections. As you have said before, many things have changed in these five years and all for the worse.
So how do we get Chavismo out of power in a peaceful and democratic way? Because if there are elections and the minimum conditions required for them to be held in a clean and free manner are not met, do we have Chavismo for life?
No, it will not be for life. The Berlin Wall fell and there was no need to knock it down with cannon fire or bombing, nor was there any need for a military invasion. The Berlin wall fell because the people realised that they could not resist, and the government structure itself realised that it could not serve the people any more and in the same way the iron curtain of the other communist countries fell. I think that what is happening in Venezuela, this impoverishment of the population, the hunger of the population as it is being done, because of this we already have almost 20% of the population that has had to emigrate, there are five and a half million Venezuelans who have emigrated in search of a future for themselves and their families, when we see this we realize that something very serious is happening in the country. Venezuela has been left in the hands of a small oligarchy and the rest of the country is impoverished. This cannot coexist much longer. I think that the time will come when people will succeed in breaking down this "Berlin Wall".
Also, with not very good international support... For example, Iran that is taking gasoline to Venezuela in exchange for gold or Russia that is selling weapons systems also in exchange for gold or Cuba... in short, quite questionable international support.
That is right, unfortunately Nicolas Maduro's partners and his gang are not the best representatives of democracy and progress in the world; quite the contrary. They are oppressive regimes, tyrannies or dictatorships that are sadly united by very particular interests and the lust and hunger for power. They want to keep power for power's sake.