SDP delegation in Brussels rejects ‘unreasonable and arbitrary actions’ by Venezuelan authorities

The Portuguese PSD delegation in Brussels on Saturday denied that the delegation of the European People’s Party (EPP), made up of MEP Sebastião Bugalho, was not allowed to enter Venezuela, calling it an “unjustified and arbitrary” action.

“Since the mission led by MP Sebastián Bugallo has a political mandate from the President of the PPE Parliamentary Group, the PSD MPs consider that this unjustified and arbitrary act committed by the Venezuelan authorities does not respect the mandate of the elected MPs, the President of the PPE Parliamentary Group and, ultimately, the European Parliament and the European Union,” reads a statement sent to the editorial board.

On Friday, a delegation from the European People’s Party (EPP) that was observing the Venezuelan presidential elections, invited by the country’s opposition, was first detained at the Caracas airport and then expelled from Venezuela, the Spanish agency EFE reported.

In a statement, the head of the Portuguese PSD delegation in Brussels, Paulo Cunha, expressed regret at the way the Venezuelan authorities treated the delegation, which included MEP Sebastião Bugalho.

“Preventing the entry of this delegation into the country, when it was a visit carried out within the framework of an invitation from opposition political forces – even if it coincided with the holding of an election event – is reprehensible, regrettable and deserves public condemnation,” the text says.

The note from the Portuguese SDP delegation in Brussels stressed that “in several public statements made in the days preceding the visit”, the Portuguese MEP, Deputy Coordinator for External Relations of the PPE group and representative of this delegation, “stated that this mission would take place with absolute respect for the country’s sovereignty and the electoral law”.

“For this reason, I understand that this act of obstruction and expulsion of the deputies who took part in the visit is even more surprising,” says Paulo Cunha.

Several international delegations, in addition to the group of the European People’s Party (PPE), of which the MEP elected by the Democratic Alliance (AD, PSD/CDS-PP coalition) Sebastián Bugallo was a member, were not allowed to enter Venezuela to participate in the presidential elections on Sunday, the EFE news agency reported this Saturday.

More than 21 million Venezuelans have the right to vote in this presidential election, whose campaign has been marked by an atmosphere of great tension in the country, in the midst of an economic, social and political crisis.

The current head of state of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (UPV), will run for the third time for another six-year term.

Maduro faces Edmundo González Urrutia (Table of Democratic Unity/MUD), the opposition candidate who leads in most polls, although the president’s party has discounted them as rigged.