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Urgent. Help Venezuela to Democracy
Eight days, only eight days from today, Venezuela will hold elections.
The opposition has unified behind candidate Edmundo Gonzalez who is ahead in the polls.
The fact that the opposition has been able to unify is a triumph for all Venezuelans.
Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan firebrand, was barred by the dictatorship from running, thus, Mr Gonzalez entered the race on her behalf.
Yesterday, in an article in the NY Times, the Venezuelan activist Roberto Patiño argued in favor of the lifting of sanctions against Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro and protection from prosecution, in exchange for his allowing the elections to go on without restrictions.
Mr Patiño states convincingly that ‘this is the time to prioritize the greater good and for the interests of the people to take precedence over the politics of revenge.’
Recent polls show Mr Gonzalez, a former ambassador, to be leading in the polls by 20%.
Venezuela has suffered enormously from their depressed economy, a result of their government’s poor administration and the wrecking of their oil industry.
How is it possible that a nation with the largest oil reserves in the world does not have a functioning oil industry?
But that is a testament to the incompetence of that regime.
And under Maduro’s dictatorship, the political repression has been brutal, sending upwards of 7 million…
