The suggestion of a co-government with the U.S.-backed, coup-plotting far right is a disregard for Venezuelan rule of law.

On Friday, ALBA Movements, an organization bringing together grassroots movements from 25 countries in the Americas, issued a statement rejecting the claims made by the presidents of Colombia and Brazil, who proposed the formation of a cohabitation government in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected in the July 28 elections. 

Below is the statement from ALBA Movements:

“Respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples is a principle that any revolutionary project should prioritize.  It must make that principle a political banner in international relations, even in the face of conservative foreign pressure that always seeks to undermine it.

The social and popular movements that know, love, and defend the Bolivarian people reject, as unusual and untimely, the slightest idea or suggestion, such as that proposed by some ‘progressive’ sectors in the region, of developing diplomatic, political, military, or any other type of interventions in Venezuela, which are aimed at effectively disregarding the results of a concluded electoral process.

These insinuations are nothing more than a denial of Venezuela’s sovereignty and a lack of respect for the people’s will expressed at the polls on July 28.  While we acknowledge the democratic spirit of the governments of Brazil and Colombia, we expect their leaders to rise to the level of the peoples they represent and who elected them.

Respect for the sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its institutions, and the full awareness that allowing half-hearted versions or the suggestion of extranational methods to ‘resolve’ the attempted coup will only create opportunities for imperialism to bury the Revolution, as it has been dreaming of doing for over 25 years.

Neither Petro would ever join a ‘National Front’ led by Alvaro Uribe, nor would Lula be part of a coalition headed by Bolsonaro.  The far-right, which is by definition anti-democratic, would never allow that.  It doesn’t even make pragmatic sense to ask Venezuela to do so.

Neither the media, nor the Organization of American States, nor the United States, nor any other country in the region.  Only the Venezuelan people, through the strength of their legitimate institutions, will determine their destiny.

The mere suggestion of a co-government with the U.S.-funded, coup-plotting far right, which has used physical and symbolic violence to attack Chavista organizations, militants, and the people, is a disregard for the functioning of the Venezuelan rule of law and its Constitution, which does not provide for second rounds of elections or foreign audits.  No country would be willing to surrender its sovereignty by allowing other countries to judge its electoral processes.

It is very simple: The Venezuelan legal framework provides a procedure in case there are doubts about the electoral process, which is the filing of a petition with the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.  This process is currently underway at the initiative of President Nicolas Maduro himself, and the Court’s ruling should be the final word on any speculation.

ALBA Movements calls on progressive and revolutionary forces committed to the anti-imperialist struggle to actively defend Venezuela in this context of attempted coup, which appears to be carried out by a fascist opposition sector but aligns with the U.S. strategy of regional control.

Today they are targeting Venezuela, tomorrow they will go after our peoples.  If we do not defend Venezuela now, it will be too late for us tomorrow.  Let us not be confused or mistaken: the enemy remains the same even if it disguises itself in new clothes and masks.

We are also the same.  We are those who promised Commander Chavez to always be loyal.  We are those who committed to achieving the second and final independence.  We are those who will always defend the sovereignty of our continent.”