Partial agreements on Venezuela elections
Oct. 18, 2023
Venezuela's Maduro government and the opposition alliance Plataforma Unitaria reached an agreement for electoral guarantees for presidential elections. International observers - including from the European Union and United Nations - will oversee the vote, according to terms unveiled yesterday in Barbados. The government pledged to allow all parties to choose their candidates, and grant all campaigns fair access to the media. Venezuela’s government said the presidential election will take place in the second half of 2024.
However, the agreements reached yesterday do not address bans prohibiting prominent opposition politicians from holding office. María Corina Machado, a frontrunner in the opposition primary to be held on Sunday, is among those affected. The disqualification of opposition candidates, including Machado, was a key point of discussion ahead of the agreement, reports the Washington Post. According to Forbes, “the ban on certain candidates has been put down as a red line for the Venezuelan government.”
However, “the opening clause of one of the signed agreements states that all parties have the right to choose their own candidate for the upcoming election,” notes the Miami Herald.
It was widely reported that the U.S. was prepared to offer Venezuela sanctions relief in exchange for democratic concessions from President Nicolás Maduro, but no announcement to that effect was made yesterday. (See yesterday’s post.)
Reuters suggests that the deal was insufficient. And the New York Times reports the U.S. is unlikely to fully lift sanctions if Machado can’t run.
The U.S. later reiterated calls for release of political prisoners, independence of the electoral process, freedom of expression and respect for human rights, issues that were not covered in Tuesday's agreement.
The partial accords signed yesterday follow a series of meetings held earlier this year between representatives of the U.S. Biden administration and Venezuela’s Maduro government.
After the signing ceremony in Barbados, Gerardo Blyde, who led the opposition’s negotiators, said the provisions include “a route” for affected candidates and political parties “to regain their rights quickly.” (Associated Press)
Blyde portrayed the agreements as an advance that took months of work behind the scenes, and noting that the negotiations in Mexico had reached a stalemate in November of last year. (Efecto Cocuyo)
For the Associated Press, yesterday’s agreement “demonstrated notable progress in a negotiation process marked by fits and starts over the past two years, but it also showed how far apart the two sides remain on what constitutes fair electoral conditions.”
Regional
“After a “lost decade” that saw economies stagnate across Latin America and the Caribbean, a new optimism appears to be taking hold in some areas,” writes Brian Winter in Americas Quarterly. “It’s uneven, concentrated in certain countries (especially Brazil and Mexico) and sectors (energy, agribusiness and “nearshoring,” among others). But the bottom line still looks like a modest increase in growth, and a chance at better times for investors and many of LAC’s 660 million citizens.”
Latin America is squarely on the sidelines of the new bipolar or multipolar world order currently taking shape, argue Will Freeman and Ryan Berg in Foreign Affairs. Lack of international interest has been good for the region’s self-determination, but “Latin America’s position on the margins also means that it misses out on the economic opportunities and support from abroad that it desperately needs.”
Faith leaders from around the world are endorsing and supporting an inclusive Loss and Damage Fund in preparation for COP28, with a focus on championing the cause of the poor. (See yesterday’s Just Caribbean Updates.)
Argentina
An Argentine congressional candidate Lilia Lemoine, allied with libertarian Javier Milei (she is in fact his hairdresser), proposed a law permitting men to renounce paternity. Lemoine couched her proposal as a fair counterpart to women’s right to terminate pregnancies — or “kill their children and renounce being mothers” as she so colorfully phrased it. (Ámbito Financiero)
Argentine environmentalists are concerned that political focus on the Vaca Muerta shale deposit’s economic promise “is diverting attention, and potential investment, away from renewable energy and tackling the climate crisis, and instead funneling it into fracking, one of the dirtiest forms of fossil-fuel extraction,” reports the Guardian.
Brazil
“A withering drought has turned the Amazonian capital of Manaus into a climate dystopia with the second worst air quality in the world and rivers at the lowest levels in 121 years,” reports the Guardian.
Migration
“Escape from climate catastrophe is not recognized as grounds for asylum under international law,” pushing many migrants attempting to flee rising sea levels, floods, droughts and wildfires in the path of smugglers, reports the Guardian.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Recent hurricanes and floods have caused significant damage to Indigenous communities in St Vincent and the Grenadines and they are at risk of being completely wiped out, reports theCaribbean Investigative Journalism Network. (See yesterday’s Just Caribbean Updates.)