Venezuela’s bishops are calling on the government to comment on the election results

SÃO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — Amid widespread allegations of fraud surrounding July’s elections that reportedly ended in President Nicolas Maduro’s narrow re-election, the country’s Catholic bishops are calling for full details of the results to be made public.

Full disclosure, the bishops said during an extraordinary assembly Oct. 15-17 in Caracas, is the only way to “build a democratic and peaceful Venezuela.”

Ahead of the July vote, many Venezuelans hoped that the regime would make it impossible to falsify what polls showed was a huge advantage for the opposition.

Edmundo Gonzalez, who ran for president with the support of main opposition leader María Corina Machado (who was prevented from running due to controversial allegations against herself by the authorities), appeared to be at least 30 percentage points ahead of Maduro in national polls.

However, the National Electoral Council announced Maduro’s re-election with 51 percent of the vote without ever publishing the voting reports. Copies obtained from the opposition and forwarded to the Atlantap-based Carter Center appeared to show that González received more than 60 percent of the vote and therefore should have been declared president-elect.

After the controversial vote, Gonzalez had to leave Venezuela and is now living in exile in Spain. After the results were published, there was a wave of protests in which numerous demonstrators were arrested and tortured.

In this context, the bishops demanded that the government come clean.

“The words of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘The truth will set you free’ (John 8:31) have resonated strongly in our minds and hearts, so we would like to repeat the appeal to the National Electoral Council […] “Publish in detail the results of the electoral process of July 28, which demonstrated the desire of the Venezuelan people for change,” their document states.

The bishops said disclosing the results was a fundamental step to “preserve citizens’ confidence in voting and restore the true meaning of politics.”

The bishops denounced political repression against dissidents, including “arbitrary detentions” and “human rights violations.”

“We demand the release of the arrested demonstrators, including minors,” the statement said.

The prelates said that the “difficult situation” in Venezuela makes them feel called by the Word of God, which invites them to listen to the cries of the people and give them comfort.

“We renew our commitment to all suffering brothers to continue to accompany them by praying, welcoming them, being side by side with them, sharing with them and offering them services offered by several church organizations,” it said .

The letter ended by saying that the bishops want to revive hope and express their support for the prayer groups that have gathered across the country to ask for peace and well-being in Venezuela.

Father Pedro Freites, once an important member of the Venezuelan clergy who now lives in exile in Miami, recounted core that the Church has shown courage in its actions and statements against Maduro, which is crucial now that “for the first time the opposition has not been sold out to the regime.”

“Machado and Gonzalez were really resilient. All previous elections have been handled fraudulently by the government, at times with the support of the opposition. Well, it didn’t happen,” Freites said.

He said that the Episcopal Conference has a copy of the election results, which is why it continues to insist on the issue of democracy.

“Since the 1960s, the Church has represented a prophetic voice when it comes to Venezuelan politics. “That’s why we know that only Hugo Chávez’s first electoral victory in the 1990s was real,” he said.

Freites worked for several years as one of the heads of Vatican Radio in South America and interviewed Chávez several times. For more than a decade, he denounced the government’s misdeeds, including electoral fraud.

“There is a general attitude that the episcopate cannot be indifferent and remain silent when it comes to so much humiliation suffered by the people. “This regime is not only totalitarian, but also criminal,” Freites said, emphasizing that Maduro despises a number of international agreements that affect the country’s political life.

“Our mistake is that we have always preferred to take a sensible approach to these problems, but the Venezuelan regime is in reality a dictatorial regime of a totalitarian nature, therefore no sensible dialogue is possible,” Freites said.

He said it is up to the church to proclaim faith alongside social commitment, justice and democracy.

“The word ‘church’ means assembly – our assembly must bring light in a time of darkness,” he said.