Former Latin-American presidents: Any attempt at election fraud in Sunday’s Venezuelan elections must be punished

The Freedom and Democracy Group, an organization primarily made up of former Latin-American presidents, issued a statement this Wednesday highlighting the tireless fight of the democratic resistance in Venezuela.

“From the era of Hugo Chávez to the present day with Nicolás Maduro, members of the resistance have constantly been victims of electoral manipulations and fraud to restrict the representation of a free citizenry,” the group said in a statement just days before Venezuela’s Sunday presidential elections.

“Despite the abuses, human rights violations, disqualifications, persecutions and intimidation, the democratic resistance has faced the opprobrium of the dictator,” they added.

The group is made up of former Latin American presidents including Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, Bolivia’s Felipe Calderón, Jeanine Áñez, and Jorge Quiroga, Colombia’s Iván Duque and Andrés Pastrana Arango, Costa Rica’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez, the Dominican Republic’s Luis Abinader, Ecuador’s Guillermo Lasso, Panama’s Mireya Moscoso, and Spain’s José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy.

The former presidents also affirmed that Venezuela is close to starting the path towards democracy again, “which predicts a political, economic and social renaissance after years of the largest migration crisis in the region.”

In the text they exposed the two possible scenarios in the elections next Sunday, July 28: the victory of the opposition or electoral fraud by the Nicolás Maduro regime.

“The regime faces a clear lack of popular support and, in desperation, has attempted to prevent the presence of international observers. “They seek to prohibit the presence of electoral witnesses and threaten citizens with a bloodbath,” the group added.

The statement concludes: “The international community must support citizens who demand the restoration of democracy. “Any attempted fraud must be punished with the maximum sanctions, and effective international prosecution must be carried out against Nicolás Maduro and his closest circle.”

On Friday, ADN America reported that some members of the Group were delayed in a flight scheduled to depart from Panama to Venezuela, in what was widely seen as a deliberate attempt by the Maduro regime to close his country’s airspace as a means of blocking outside election observers.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said that the Maduro regime denied authorization of the flight to cross into Venezuelan airspace as long as the former presidents were on board.

"The aircraft was denied permission to take off from Tocumen as long as they remain on board," Mulino wrote in a post he published on the X social media platform.

Former President Fox, who was among the former leaders and election observers on the flight, shared a video from Panama’s Tocumen Airport said, “Nicolas Maduro has caused all Copa flights heading to Caracas and Venezuela to be suspended.”

After the issue began to go viral in the international news arena, Venezuelan airspace was reopened. said flights resumed later on Friday.

“The Venezuelan government blocked the airspace of its country to Copa Airlines for several hours,” Panama's Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said, adding that the Panama was “analyzing this incident very carefully.”

This story was updated on Sunday July 28 to include Friday’s news events.