Caracas, January 9 (RHC)-- The National Assembly of Venezuela, in the ordinary session of the Bolivarian legislative body this Tuesday, declared former Latin American presidents of the IDEA group as "persona non grata" after denouncing their alliances with the radical Venezuelan and international far-right, with interventionist plans to undermine national sovereignty and support an interim government in the country.
The measure affects the former presidents Andrés Pastrana (Colombia), Mario Abdo (Paraguay), Mireya Moscoso (Panama), Felipe Calderón (Mexico), Vicente Fox (Mexico), Ernesto Pérez (Panama), Jorge Quiroga (Bolivia), Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica), and Jamil Mahuad (Ecuador).
In the context of the meeting, the President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, presented a photograph showing the connection between the country's national and international right-wing and drug trafficking.
Rodriguez detailed a group of former presidents, among whom he mentioned the Colombian Andrés Pastrana, noting that he appears in the so-called Pandora Papers.
"He has owned a company in Panama since 2016, the 'Offshore,' whose shareholder is another Colombian company that controls a bank account in the United States, to put it bluntly: money laundering," he indicated.
Additionally, he mentioned the former president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, who during his term in office allegedly left an unpaid oil debt of 325 million dollars. "Mario Abdo never paid Venezuela, but he tried by all means to find a way to bribe Juan Guaidó so that he would receive part of those 300 million dollars," he warned. He added to the list the close ties of the former President of the United Mexican States, Felipe Calderón, with figures of "organized crime and drug trafficking" in the Aztec nation.
Jorge Rodríguez said: "You just scratch the surface of the media lie a little bit and the truth appears." He also questioned the role of foreign media in exposing corruption cases, where these former leaders are implicated.
The Venezuelan deputy emphasized that "the Venezuelan and international far-right keeps filling their mouths, supported by large international media corporations, talking about the war on drugs and actions against drug trafficking."
At the same time, he specified that "the truth barely scratches the surface of the media lie and the truth appears: the seemingly indefeasible alliance between the factors of Venezuelan right-wing extremism and drug trafficking."
Following this line, Rodríguez recalled what he had planned in previous days: "any foreigner who steps on Venezuelan territory without an invitation will be treated as an invader and will face the full weight of the Law."
Meanwhile, he said that "Ecuador is a paradise for international drug trafficking," warning that in that country "they use the entire banking system of Ecuador as a laundering machine for drug trafficking cartels." "The most important drug cartels from Colombia have moved to Ecuador," he added.
Rodríguez asked the Armed Forces to treat the far-right former opposition candidate, Edmundo González, and all the former presidents of the IDEA group as invaders, stating that they should be detained if they attempt to enter Venezuela on Friday, January 10.
The Venezuelan parliamentarians also unanimously approved the Draft Agreement in Repudiation of the interventionist statements of a group of international far-right in light of the inauguration of the constitutionally elected president, Nicolás Maduro.
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]
