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New European Union sanctions on democratic elections: 30 Venezuelan politicians to be sanctioned

Originally published: Orinoco Tribune on February 21, 2021 (more by Orinoco Tribune)  |

The European Union (EU) announced this Friday, February 19, that the body will sanction about thirty Venezuelan leaders for participating in the legislative elections last December, reported Europa Press, alluding to a “high ranked official” of the community bloc.

Brussels justifies this new round of illegal sanctions on politicians, who according to the bloc were “involved in the December elections,” arguing that the election in which the National Assembly was elected for the period 2021-2026 is not recognized by the 27 European Union countries nor by other actors of the so-called “international community.”

“The list is expected to include around thirty officials,” reported Europa Press. “As informed by a diplomatic source, the measure would entail the freezing of assets of the persons mentioned in the list and the prohibition of their entry into the EU, in line with the four rounds of sanctions approved so far by the bloc since the sanctions plan was established in 2017, in view of the democratic ‘deterioration’ in the country,” detailed the Spanish news agency.

The body in charge of launching this new interventionist action will be the Foreign Affairs Council, which has already applied unilateral coercive measures on 36 political leaders of Venezuela, both from the government and from the opposition, without decreasing a bit the base of support of President Nicolás Maduro.

When consulted on this announcement, Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza, editor and founder of Orinoco Tribune, expressed,

This is another evidence of the European Union not realizing how ineffective theirs and U.S. sanctions have been in their attempt to oust President Maduro. Moreover, this new round of sanctions demonstrates the supremacist and racist attitudes of many in the European Union, and also shows how hypocritical the EU is, that they are sanctioning Venezuelan politicians for participating in democratic legislative elections under supervision of international observers just because the political group they supported did not participate.

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