Resolution on the situation in Venezuela

The European Parliament adopted by 425 votes to 131, with 63 abstentions, a resolution on the situation in Venezuela.

The text adopted in plenary was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, Renew, Greens/EFA and The Left groups.

Nicolás Maduro’s regime has continually harassed, persecuted and censored activists, journalists and civil society organisations in the midst of an ongoing socioeconomic, political and humanitarian crisis marked by hyperinflation, escalating starvation, disease, huge levels of corruption, crime and impunity, flagrant violations of human rights and high mortality rates, which have resulted in the mass emigration of more than 7.7 million Venezuelans seeking to escape the tyranny.

As a reminder, on 28 July 2024, a presidential election was held in Venezuela to choose a president for a six-year term beginning on 10 January 2025. This election would have represented a unique opportunity to move from a corrupt autocracy towards a return to democracy if all the items of the Barbados Agreement had been respected. In the lead-up to the election, the regime tirelessly persecuted, abducted, arrested and imprisoned activists of the opposition and the campaign team of the opposition leader María Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo González.

Parliament recognised Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected President of Venezuela and María Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela, since she was elected at the primaries of the Unitary Platform in 2023 with 92.35 % of the vote.

Members strongly condemned and fully rejected the electoral fraud orchestrated by the regime controlled National Electoral Council, which refused to make public the official result. They also condemned the Venezuelan Government’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Edmundo González. The resolution highlighted the Spanish Government’s decision to welcome Mr González in Spain with the aim of granting him political asylum upon his request, which will make it possible to protect him as well as to maintain a viable perspective for a resolution to the political impasse.

Parliament urged the EU to reinstate sanctions against the members of the National Electoral Council. At the same time, it called for the prolongation of regime sanctions and for expanding their scope to apply targeted sanctions through the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime against Nicolás Maduro and his inner circle.

Lastly, Parliament urged the regional players and the international community to put all the pressure they can on the Maduro regime and Maduro’s inner circle to accept the democratic will of the Venezuelan people, recognising Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected President of Venezuela.