Opening the award ceremony of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2024, President Metsola stated: “Of their quest for justice, democracy and the rule of legislation, Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado are fearlessly upholding values that thousands and thousands of Venezuelans and the European Parliament maintain so expensive. This award is not only a recognition but in addition a reminder that the battle for freedom is rarely in useless. The way forward for Venezuela belongs to its folks and the European Parliament stands proudly with them.”
María Corina Machado, represented within the ceremony by her daughter Ana Corina Sosa, was elected opposition candidate for the Venezuelan presidency on behalf of the ‘United Democratic Platform’ in 2023, earlier than being disqualified by the government-controlled Nationwide Electoral Council.
Edmundo González Urrutia, a diplomat and politician who succeeded Machado as the principle opposition candidate after her disqualification, denounced the failure to publish the official outcomes of the July 2024 presidential elections and contested Nicolás Maduro’s declared victory. He left Venezuela in September 2024, following the issuing of an arrest warrant towards him, and was given refuge in Spain.
Chatting with MEPs, Mr González Urrutia stated: “sooner reasonably than later, our nation will take a flip in a route decided by our folks. The abuse and violence of nowadays is only a clumsy try and postpone what’s unavoidable.”
“No authorities based mostly on violence is steady,” Mr González Urrutia stated, underlining the truth that Venezuelans, together with partisans and former partisans of the regime, “need to advance on the trail of freedom, democracy and understanding amongst us all.”
Venezuela’s president-elect stated the Sakharov award strengthens his dedication to dialogue and symbolises the unity of democrats internationally who “right now, greater than ever, want one another”. He concluded that “Venezuela’s battle for freedom and democracy is the battle for these values in the entire world.”
In her intervention made remotely, María Corina Machado denounced the truth that “for 1 / 4 of a century they’ve tried to divide, weaken and subdue us (…). Preaching hate, they tried to pit us towards one another, folks towards folks; divide us between wealthy and poor, left and proper, white and black, those that go away and those that keep, and likewise for our spiritual beliefs.”
“Additionally they pursued the destruction of all democratic establishments, from an impartial judiciary to the favored vote. A corrupt and prison regime has suffocated the financial system, prompting the worst ranges of hyperinflation in historical past and turning thousands and thousands into dependents of public assist conditioned to political loyalty, with out dignity nor future,” she added. “However Venezuela has reacted,” Ms Machado stated, highlighting that the 28 July presidential elections marked the beginning of an unstoppable real change which transcends the present time and Venezuela’s borders. “We all know we are going to succeed (…); Venezuela’s victory would be the victory of all humankind,” she concluded, thanking the European Parliament “for proving we aren’t alone”.
In a decision adopted on 19 September 2024, the European Parliament recognised Mr González Urrutia because the respectable and democratically elected President of Venezuela and María Corina Machado as chief of the nation’s democratic forces. MEPs additionally stated worldwide election remark mission reviews made it clear that the Venezuelan presidential election didn’t adjust to worldwide requirements of electoral integrity.
Earlier in February 2024, the European Parliament had urged the member states to keep up the sanctions imposed on the Maduro regime, and to step them up till there’s a clear and everlasting dedication by the regime, according to the Barbados Settlement, to uphold fundamental democratic requirements, the rule of legislation and human rights.
In July 2023, the European Parliament strongly condemned the Venezuelan regime’s arbitrary and unconstitutional choice to forestall outstanding political opposition figures similar to María Corina Machado, Leopoldo López, Henrique Capriles and Freddy Superlano from operating within the 2024 elections.
You may watch the recording of the ceremony.
Background
Named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is the EU’s highest human rights award.
Created in 1988, it has been awarded by Parliament to people or organisations yearly since 1988, in recognition of their work in one of many following areas: the defence of human rights and basic rights, particularly freedom of expression, the safeguarding of minority rights, respect for worldwide legislation, the event of democracy and the defence of the rule of legislation.
