Opposition leader María Corina Machado asked Norway – a mediating country in the negotiations between the Government of Venezuela and the majority opposition – for its maximum support to ensure that “free and fair” presidential elections will be held in the Caribbean country on July 28, according to a communication released on Monday.

The letter, addressed to the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr, aims to urge his Government, in “its capacity as a facilitator of the process of dialogue and negotiation between political actors in Venezuela, to maximize the diplomatic resources at its disposal” so that the Barbados agreement – signed by both parties in October and which establishes electoral guarantees – is “fully complied with.”

In the communication, dated this Sunday, Machado, winner of the opposition primaries last October, assured that the agreement “has been completely violated by the regime presided over by Nicolás Maduro.”

The former liberal deputy, who became a presidential candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) – the main opposition coalition – after winning in the primaries, recently announced the decision of this bloc to appoint the historian Corina Yoris as a candidate for the upcoming elections in the face of the disqualification that prevents her from competing for public office in these and other elections until 2036.

Likewise, Machado condemned the “regimen” decision to also block the registration of Yoris’ candidacy and added that “there is no political or legal cause that prevents” such registration.

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Machado denounced that the head of state “has sought to prevent, by all means,” his “participation as a presidential candidate,” despite the fact that the Barbados agreement established – he pointed out – that “each party could freely choose” its standard-bearer, in addition to “electoral guarantees for all the actors who participate in said elections” and the “promotion of a favorable political climate.”

Among the “most flagrant violations of the agreement,” Machado mentioned the ratification of his disqualification in January by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), the arrest of “at least eight people linked” to his party, Vente Venezuela (VV), and Maduro’s qualification of this formation as a “terrorist” organization.

“To accuse us, they have forged evidence and forced some detainees to accuse their own companions of false armed conspiracies,” said the opponent, who warned that teams in her country “are at risk of upcoming forced disappearances” and that she herself “could be subject to unjustified detention.”

On Tuesday, the PUD reported the registration, on a provisional basis, of Edmundo González Urrutia, a candidate who can be replaced from this April 1, as long as he does not have any administrative sanction or impediment contemplated by the law, and that the National Electoral Council (CNE) admits the candidacy that replaces it.

Machado said on Sunday that the electoral schedule of the presidential elections establishes the replacement of candidates up to ten days before the process, so he asked for confidence from his followers.

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