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The European Parliament awards Venezuelan opposition leaders for “their brave fight”
By Editorial Staff
The European Parliament awarded María Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia as winners of the 2024 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The Conference of Presidents acknowledged “their brave fight to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela”. The award will be handed over during a ceremony organized on the 18 December in Strasbourg, during Parliament’s plenary session.
“In their quest for a fair, free and peaceful transition of power, they have fearlessly upheld values that millions of Venezuelans and the European Parliament hold so dear: justice, democracy and the rule of law,” the European Parliament President Roberta Metsola stated, announcing the laureate. The European Parliament, she said, “stands with the people of Venezuela and with María Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia in their struggle for the democratic future of their country.”
María Corina Machado was elected as the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential candidate on behalf of the ‘Unity Democratic Platform’ in 2023 but was later disqualified by the regime-controlled National Electoral Council.
Edmundo González Urrutia, a diplomat and politician who succeeded her as the ‘Unity Democratic Platform’ candidate, denounced the Venezuelan government’s failure to publish the official results of the presidential elections and contested Nicolás Maduro’s declared victory. Mr González Urrutia left the country in September after a warrant was issued to arrest him.
Both were the candidates chosen by the EPP (European People’s Party) and the European Conservatives and Reformists (Ecr) and they obtained this prestigious recognition thanks to the convergence of the Patriots’ votes as well. In short, the so-called ‘Venezuelan majority’ was reborn in the Strasbourg Parliament after a resolution adopted on 19 September 2024, by 309 votes in favour, 201 against and 12 abstentions.
With that vote, the Parliament “strongly condemned and fully rejected the electoral fraud orchestrated by the regime-controlled National Electoral Council, which refused to make public the official result. The chamber further recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected President
According to the Venezuelan government, 2,400 people were arrested during demonstrations that followed the election and non-governmental organizations have reported the deaths of 24 people. María Corina Machado remains in hiding, while Edmundo González Urrutia fled to Spain, which granted him political asylum on 7 September.
In its September 2024 resolution, Parliament called on the EU to extend sanctions against the Venezuelan regime and to apply targeted sanctions through the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime against Nicolás Maduro and his inner circle. Before the elections, the European Parliament urged member states to maintain the sanctions imposed on the Maduro regime and criticized the unconstitutional decision to prevent prominent political opposition figures such as María Corina Machado from running in the 2024 elections.