Borrell Says US Supports EU Observer Mission to Venezuela

In a joint statement, Blinken and Borrell support “efforts to restore democratic order” to the country.

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The United States supports the controversial sending of a European Union mission to Venezuela to supervise the elections that take place next month in that country. This was suggested by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Josep Borrell, during his visit to Washington, which ends this Friday. “If the United States were against it, it would have said so. Officially, it has said nothing. There are silences that are very explicit “, Borrell declared in a meeting with journalists. The US State Department had not responded to a request for information from EL MUNDO regarding whether this is the US position.

The head of EU foreign policy described the US’s “less committed” attitude as “natural”, but insisted that what marks Washington’s policy in relation to the transition to democracy in Venezuela is a phrase from the joint communiqué. that the State Department issued Thursday, after Borrell met with the chief of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, that said that both “underscored their strong support for efforts to restore democratic order” in that country.

Borrell justified Brussels’ decision to send the observers despite the fact that in last year’s elections it did not do so by claiming that the Nicols Maduro regime has met all the necessary requirements, that he should list one by one: “If the opposition presents itself; if the exploratory mission [de la UE] says he has perceived a widespread desire on the part of civil society and the people for, if there are elections, there will be an electoral observation mission from Europe; If we have managed to get the Venezuelan Government to accept all the conditions that we put on it; if we have verified that there has been an effective presentation of the opposition that has made it so that there have been no difficulties for those who wish to count in the elections. “That’s right: the head of EU diplomacy insisted that” elections in Venezuela are not like in Switzerland. The Venezuelan regime is what it is; we all know that “.

Borrell has spent three days in Washington, on his first visit to the US as EU High Representative since Joe Biden took office as president in January. In addition to Blinken, he has met with the undersecretary of defense, Kathleen Hicks, to which he conveyed the idea that tightening European military cooperation will not create a force to compete with the OTAN. “It is about creating a complementary military capacity of the Atlantic Alliance”, insisted Borrell, who stressed that “the best organization for the territorial defense of Europe is NATO”.