José Mujica: Neither the US nor Maduro cares about democracy

Former President José “Pepe” Mujica had spoken in favor of a call for “total elections” supervised by the UN

For former President José “Pepe” Mujica, his role in the political and institutional crisis that Venezuela is experiencing is that of “playing outside”; that his thing is simply to give his opinion. In a conversation with the Uruguayan newspaper “El Observador,” Mujica said that neither the United States nor Nicolás Maduro really cares about democracy and believes that dialogue is the only solution because “the other option is war.”

According to the former president, in Venezuela “there is a lot of fanaticism, for one side and for the other” and “none can guarantee clean elections or anything like that”. The former leader also added that “the dialogue is very difficult”, although he valued as “a heroic gesture” the initiative of the Uruguayan government to summon – together with Mexico – to a summit in Montevideo on February 7.

In dialogue with the Uruguayan newspaper, he gave as an example the negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan to argue that “the United States does not give a damn about democracy”. However, when asked if the de facto president, Nicolás Maduro, cares about the same issue, he said “Neither. Maybe not.”

However, the leftist figure did not delve into details and deepened the factor that represents the US in this crisis.

Mujica, who a few days earlier had already spoken in favor of a call for “total elections” supervised by the UN, warned that “if dialogue is not achieved”, “the other option is war”, and that his position is “Try to avoid it.” However, he said that between the economic sanctions and the polarization in Venezuela, there is already “a war without shots”.

This Wednesday, days after calling for dialogue, Uruguay issued a new declaration with Mexico in which, in the face of the situation in Venezuela, it declared itself “neutral”, and invited an international summit that will be attended by ten countries.

However, when the deputy, president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, swore as interim president of Venezuela based on various articles of the Constitution of his country, the National Liberation Movement Tupamaros (MLN-T) of which Mujica is leader, alerted the role of the United States in the political crisis of the Caribbean country after having recognized Maduro as legitimate president.

”Being faithful to its history, (The US) prepares a military intervention that will result in a bloodshed in this brother country,“ said the Tupamaro movement.

Guaidó, backed by more than 60 countries, was inaugurated on January 23 as president in charge of Venezuela as he considers Maduro’s second term as illegitimate, which began last January 10 and is considered an usurper elected in a fraudulent electoral process in which the main opposition parties did not participate.

Mediators

The European Union, seven countries that make up that organization and four Latin Americans, among which are Uruguay, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Bolivia, will work for a month and a half on the possibility of facilitating a dialogue that will culminate in elections in Venezuela.

”The objective of the International Contact Group is clear, it is to allow Venezuelans to express themselves freely and democratically through new elections, it is not about mediating,“ said the head of European diplomacy. Mogherini said that ”there is total unity“ in this regard and that they expect it to be ”as soon as possible.”

The European diplomat does not rule out the possibility that her bloc imposes more sanctions on Venezuela.