Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves maintains that Venezuela’s elections were democratic and transparent, but said that position does not change the fact that he is a friend of Guyana and will not tolerate any military action against it by the Nicolas Maduro regime or any other.
Venezuelan electoral authorities are yet to present evidence of Maduro’s supposed victory and in the absence of this there has been wide condemnation of the process. Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia has sought refuge in Spain after being targeted by the Venezuelan authorities. The United States has since imposed visa sanctions on a range of Venezuelan officials and Brazil, among other regional countries, has yet to recognize the result.
Gonsalves said that he also stands by the Argyle Agreement of December last year in St Vincent which aimed at easing tensions between Guyana and Venezuela and and believes that any conflict between the two nations must be resolved peacefully. “My declaration on the elections is that the elections were free and fair, reflecting the result,” Gonsalves told Stabroek News on Saturday when asked about his stance and seeming rush to declare that Maduro was democratically elected.
He said he congratulated Maduro because he knew that the Venezuelan system of voting was a technologically sound one and that he believed it showed Maduro winning.
