This July 28, 2024, the most important presidential elections will be held in Venezuela since, with Venezuelan people’s support, Hugo Chávez managed to establish the Bolivarian Revolution. It is a “decisive electoral contest for the future of Venezuela and for national, regional and international stability”, many analysts think. The two candidates with the greatest chance of being elected are the current president, Nicolás Maduro, and Edmundo González, a last-ditch replacement, who responds to the interests of the United States and the opposition leader María Corina Machado, who is disqualified from participating in political elections.
Our exclusive interviewee for Harici is Pedro Sassone, a renowned Venezuelan sociologist and diplomat. He served as Consul Chief of Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Ecuador and as Representative of Venezuela in the General Secretariat of the Union of Southern Nations (UNASUR), among other responsibilities. Currently, in addition to directing the Pedro Gual Institute of Higher Diplomatic Studies, he is the Vice Minister for the Comprehensive Care of Venezuelan Migrants of the Ministry of Popular Power for Foreign Relations of his country.
What is going to happen this July 28, 2024 in Venezuela?
Well, very beautiful and hopeful things are happening in Venezuela. That is to say, we are seeing a vigorous and developing democracy, and an economy that is already stabilizing, despite US and European sanctions. A few weeks ago, the Venezuelan people carried out a national electoral simulation organized by the country’s highest electoral authority: the National Electoral Council (CNE), in which Venezuelans turned out en masse to express their potential willingness to vote this year. 28 of July. Therefore, it will be a new democratic party for Venezuela, this election Sunday that will will be materialized in popular expression.
The exercise of suffrage or the practice of voting is a true civic tradition for the Venezuelan people and citizens. Our people like to vote and, just as they expressed it during the drill, where thousands of people participated voluntarily because it was not mandatory to do so, this Sunday, July 28, we can also expect that Venezuelan society will come out en masse to vote for the candidate of political preference. , our candidate, the only one who guarantees political, economic and social stability, is President Nicolás Maduro.
This reflects several things. Firstly, it reflects the democratic, participatory spirit and peace that is experienced today in Venezuela, and, secondly, the trust and recognition of the management of President Maduro, who has known how to face and overcome all obstacles, remaining faithful to His town.
Is Venezuela internally, politically and socially stable today?
Yes, for approximately two or three years the country has experienced peace and tranquility that has not been known since the United States unjustly imposed unilateral coercive measures on us, the so-called “sanctions.” Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, but little by little, the Bolivarian Government has managed to overcome the economic blockade, to the point that the Venezuelan economy today is stable and improving progressively year after year. I reiterate, this despite the fact that the attacks against Venezuela have not stopped for a second.
Therefore, our greatest wish is that the electoral process in our country develops perfectly, that there is no act of violence that will tarnish the presidential elections this Sunday, July 28. We hope that the dynamics are as the Venezuelan people are accustomed to. That is, voting is an expression of duty and civic conscience, voting is an institution of the Bolivarian Revolution, and of the democratic spirit and peace that Venezuela experiences.
We are aware of the dangers and threats we face for being in the eye of the imperialist hurricane, for defending our sovereign right to the use of our natural resources, especially Venezuelan oil. Our country continues to have the largest oil reserve in the world, the control of our resources by foreign powers is, has been and unfortunately will be behind the attacks, blockades, and pressures of all kinds that Venezuela suffers. Despite which we continue to move forward.
Please, tell us about the new vice-ministry that the Venezuelan Executive has just created.
Well, it is a new vice ministry of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela. The immigration issue is treated in our government as a State policy, in that framework, it is a social mission (as we call public policies) that President Nicolás Maduro has called the Great Mission Return to the Homeland (GMVP). It is a social mission (or public policy of the State) that we can say is the only international mission that Venezuela has, at the moment.
The Great Mission Return to the Homeland (GMVP) has four vertices for the social protection and rights of Venezuelan migrants: 1. Legal assistance and guaranteed identity; 2. Comprehensive Care in Education, Culture and Sports; 3. Comprehensive Socioeconomic Protection for Return; and 4. Communication and Logistics Plan.
The first vertex will provide support to migrants “against the abuses to which they are subjected in the countries where they are”, so “the best lawyers, the best law firms will be hired to deal with labor abuses for our people… And it will also ensure that their passports reach them.”
We are going to deploy, we are going to strengthen our consulates for legal attention in each of the countries, in each of the missions, fundamentally where there is the greatest flow of Venezuelans. Why? Because there are violations of law, there is xenophobia, there is violation from the point of view of labor law.
The second vertex will provide due attention in matters of “education, culture and sports, which allows, among other things, to complete their studies in high school, universities and technical schools, in addition to facilitating them – through the Great Mission Viva Venezuela Mi Patria Querida – to develop its qualities in different artistic manifestations.”
We have already tested a first pilot plan that we are now going to extend. The program is called “Culminate your Baccalaureate”, so that young Venezuelans around the world can study in our institutions. This proposal has the virtue that it is a degree that will have two certifications, one for high school and another for trade, with a particularity that this trade certification is recognized by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The third vertex will guarantee not only the return to Venezuela, but also “initiate entrepreneurship and small investment projects once they are in the Homeland, in addition to providing socioeconomic protection.”
Finally, the fourth vertex seeks “to tell the truth about our migrants, to tell the truth about Venezuela and the logistical plan to achieve, in a progressive but sustained manner, support for the thousands of migrants who want to return.”
For all this, it is a projection of the social protection policy of the Venezuelan State at the international level. The social policy of the Bolivarian Government is at your service so that you return.
“I believe that the time has come for the return of Venezuelans who are abroad, because return is their right and the country needs them back. Venezuela has told international organizations that return is a right and our government will provide the conditions for safe return,” Pedro Sassone, Vice Minister of Comprehensive Care of Venezuelan Migrants.
Much has been said about the number of Venezuelan migrants abroad. Is there an official figure?
Talking about official figures is speculating, since there are no such figures. There are no figures because no one has an exact precision of the volumes. And they are, as the term says, people “in human mobility”, that is, they are here, they are in Colombia, they are in Peru, they are in Ecuador. So the problem is not the number. And what has happened to the figures? They have been an element of manipulation by US government and international organizations, among others.
What I want to say clearly is that Venezuelan migration was instrumentalized and was used as a political factor to attack the Venezuelan government. Therefore, the figures are speculations to justify the money for supposed support for Venezuelans in each of the countries.
In the end it is an instrumentation of a political nature, therefore we cannot talk about figures, we can talk about processes. Yes, there has been a process of migratory flow of Venezuelans that is important, the largest in our history. This is the way in which the Venezuelan State has identified it and our president Nicolás Maduro defined it and has given it the importance and level it deserves, when defining this mission for the Comprehensive Care of Venezuelan Migrantes.
It is the entire social, cultural, and health structure in care of Venezuelans abroad, and, it is also important, all the support that our government provides to the Venezuelan Foreign Service, to our embassies, and consulates. I am arriving from Mexico, our entire foreign service is coordinating for protection and promotion of the return to peace.
And do you have an estimate of how many Venezuelans are going or returning to Venezuela to actively participate this July 28 in the presidential elections?
No, we do not have that accounted for, because that is up to each person, their will and their right to return to the country. And there are no figures to know how many Venezuelans have returned to vote in these elections. In addition, Venezuelans will have the possibility of voting in each of the Venezuelan consulates, in the country where they are legally residing, and complying with the requirements established by Venezuelan laws. Each consulate has duly reported this.
At the end of this electoral process, what can we expect for Venezuela?
Well, we hope that each presidential candidate ends the promotion of their political option peacefully, that they speak with sincerity and responsibility to the Venezuelan people, that the results are accepted by all contenders. For our part, in what has to do with our candidacy, that of President Nicolás Maduro, we know that there has been an open dialogue, dialogue has continued with the people, it is being projected in terms of the seven main lines of transformation, which is our economic and social development guide for Venezuela 2024-2030. That is, we have an economic proposal, there are the figures, because we are closing with this year, with a GDP growth of 4%.
We have controlled inflation, investment is arriving in the middle of an economic war. I want to tell the International Community that the unilateral coercive measures against our country have not been suspended, there are 930 unilateral coercive measures. Venezuela continues to be suffocated from a political point of view, with these illegal coercive measures that violate International Public Law and Human Rights.
However, despite all this, the Venezuelan economy is recovering and there is hope, in terms of consolidating the prosperity of the Venezuelan and achieving economic well-being and social well-being, which is the central philosophy, we also have hope and full conviction that Nicolás Maduro will to be re-elected.
And we have to tell that Venezuelan who left and who is eager to return, well, that here is his country, here is a government that is waiting for him, here is a Government that designs a policy for them. The country is waiting.
Your family is waiting for you. There is nothing more important, transcendent, than one’s homeland, because the homeland is like your mother, it is what gives you solidity, gives you identity. There is no country like you and reuniting with your country is a right.
The time has come for the return of Venezuelans, to strengthen the country, and the time has come to reaffirm the democratic commitment to the Bolivarian Revolution, re-electing Nicolás Maduro, this July 28, in peace and joy, characteristics of Venezuelan culture.
