OAS approves resolution calling for Maduro regime to publish Venezuelan election records

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved this Friday by consensus a resolution that requires the Venezuelan authorities to publish “expeditiously” the vote tallies of the July 28 presidential elections.

The non-binding text was presented on behalf of the United States, Antigua, and Barbuda with Argentina, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Suriname and Uruguay as co-sponsors.

The resolution urges the Maduro controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) to “expeditiously publish the minutes with the voting results of the presidential elections at the level of each polling station” and “respect the fundamental principle of popular sovereignty through a impartial verification of the results that guarantees the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the electoral process.”

Their call joins that also made this Friday by the European Union, including Spain, and 22 other countries, in favor of the "immediate publication of all the original minutes" of the elections and the "impartial" and "independent" verification of the results of those elections, in which according to the CNE, President Nicolás Maduro won over the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia.

The OAS resolution also highlights the importance of "protecting and preserving all equipment used in the electoral process, including all printed minutes and results, in order to safeguard the entire chain of custody" of said process.

Likewise, it requests to protect diplomatic facilities and personnel residing in Venezuelan territory, including people who request asylum in such facilities.

It also calls on interested parties to "refrain from any conduct that could compromise the construction of a peaceful solution to this crisis, respecting the sovereign will of the Venezuelan electorate."

The Permanent Council opted for it to be "an absolute priority and an obligation for Venezuela" to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, (...) especially the right to peaceful assembly and the full exercise of civil and political rights without reprisals, the "the right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest or imprisonment and the right to a fair trial."

“Let's show the people of Venezuela that they are not alone,” said U.S. ambassador to the OAS Francisco Mora at the beginning of the session.

Representatives of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were absent from the vote.

"Getting out of the dictatorship requires everyone's effort. Obviously it requires a firm dialogue that is clear that a dictatorship is not permissible even one more day," said OAS General Secretary Luis Almagro, who hails from Uruguay.

In his speech at the end of the session, he expressed his hope that “the efforts to achieve a democratic transition will yield results, results that they have not had until now … I wish the interlocutor on the side of the regime for once would act in good faith,” he said.

Almagro called for attention to the members of the organization, heralding that, “Here we all knew what was going to happen and we had to be prepared, and here we all know what is happening and we must act accordingly.”

On July 31, another resolution demanding the immediate dissemination of the electoral records had failed in that Pan-American body based in Washington.

That first text had 17 votes in favor, none against, 11 abstentions and five absences, so it did not achieve the absolute majority necessary to move forward.

The vote on that occasion was broken by the phrase that encouraged "a comprehensive verification of the results in the presence of independent observation organizations to guarantee the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the results." It was not included in the text approved now.