Venezuelan officials have rescinded their invitation for the European Union to observe the upcoming presidential election on July 28, another clear sign that President Nicolás Maduro is unlikely to relinquish power despite allowing an opposition candidate to run against him .
After months of intensified repression by the Maduro government – which has banned legitimate challengers from the ballot, jailed political opponents and cracked down on civil society – the country's electoral authority surprised many in April when it allowed the former diplomat Edmundo González to register as an opposition candidate.
Venezuela's government has been stifled by U.S. and European Union sanctions on the country's vital oil industry, and some experts say Maduro only allowed González to run because it could help him influence Washington and its allies to ease policy . on sanctions.
Prime Minister Elvis Amoroso said in a television broadcast that he would revoke the invitation until the EU lifted “the unilateral and genocidal coercive sanctions imposed on our people.”
“It would be immoral to allow their participation knowing their neocolonialist and interventionist practices against Venezuela,” he added.
The EU said so in a statement who “deeply regrets the unilateral decision” of the government electoral council and called on the government to reconsider its decision.
Venezuela's economy imploded nearly a decade ago, prompting one of the largest displacements in Latin American history: More than seven million Venezuelans have fled the country, contributing to a wave of northward migrants that has become a theme dominant in the US presidential campaign.
Three polls conducted around the country showed that a majority of respondents intended to vote for Mr. González. But there is widespread doubt that Maduro would allow such findings to become public – or that he would accept them if they did.
The Maduro government has already arrested and jailed 10 opposition members this year. Five others have an arrest warrant and are hiding in the Argentine embassy in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
A proposal in parliament would also allow the government to suspend the opposition's campaign at any time. Many Venezuelans live abroad they were unable register to vote due to expensive and cumbersome requirements.
Maduro, 61, is the political heir to Hugo Chávez's socialist movement in Venezuela, and has consolidated power since taking office in 2013. He functionally controls parliament, the army, the police, the judicial system, the council national elections, the country's budget and much of the media, as well as violent paramilitary gangs called colectivos.
He and his inner circle have also been accused of systematic human rights abuses amounting to crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and sexual violence.
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