By Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV)

May 21, 2025  Tribuna Popular

 

PRESS RELEASE:

This Sunday, May 25, regional and parliamentary elections will be held in Venezuela in a profoundly undemocratic context, marked by the absence of electoral guarantees, institutional opacity, and an unprecedented escalation of repression in recent history.This new process has been called by a National Electoral Council (CNE) devoid of any legitimacy, following its direct participation in covering up the results of the July 28, 2024, presidential elections.

The electoral maneuver being attempted to be imposed on May 25 cannot be separated from the unfinished and fraudulent process that culminated in the unconstitutional and void inauguration of Nicolás Maduro, who has usurped the Presidency of the Republic since January 10.

The CNE, controlled by the leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), has made its hallmark the flagrant violation of the processes established in laws and regulations, as well as the lack of transparency. Just days before the elections, the official schedule has not been published in the Electoral Gazette; nor has the right to freely run for office been guaranteed: voter registration cards were eliminated without explanation, and numerous opposition candidates were arbitrarily disqualified. It should be remembered that the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), as well as various organizations of different political tendencies, are under judicial intervention, which has prevented our organization, as well as all the revolutionary and popular forces, from presenting an independent electoral option to the Venezuelan people.

Added to this is the political and electoral manipulation of the Guayana Esequiba case, with which the PSUV seeks to increase its seats in the National Assembly. The arbitrary creation of an electoral district in that area—without clear information on the number of voters, polling stations, or territorial boundaries—does not respond to a genuine interest in national sovereignty, but rather a crude attempt to stir up patriotism and divert attention from a new distribution of areas in the south of the country that contain large quantities of precious minerals and are currently subject to capitalist plunder.

This climate of lawlessness has been accompanied by fierce repression against political activists, human rights defenders, and journalists. The kidnapping and incommunicado detention of former presidential candidate Enrique Márquez; the police surveillance and harassment of Professor Juan Barreto; and the persecution of lawyer María Alejandra Díaz and her family are clear examples of a policy aimed at silencing and impeding the political and social action of any expression that demands the rights of working people and confronts the abuses of the ruling elite.

These cases are complemented by the two thousand arrests carried out during the 2024 post-election protests: hundreds of people remain deprived of their liberty, many of them without trial or evidence, and subjected to systematic patterns of human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, illegal raids, short-term enforced disappearances, and flawed judicial processes.

Five people have died in state custody, and at least two others died after being released in critical health conditions, as a result of a lack of adequate medical care while in prison.

These are the reasons that led the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), elected at the 16th National Congress (Nov. 2022), to decide not to participate in this new attempt by the PSUV leadership to normalize its illegal and illegitimate administration by simulating democratic processes. While voting is a right and its exercise should not be censored, we warn the Venezuelan people of the consequences for the democratic life of the country of fueling this electoral farce in which state institutions fail to guarantee the principles of legality and transparency.

We, the Venezuelan communists, demand the immediate restoration of constitutional guarantees, the detailed and verified publication of the results of the July 28 elections, the full release of all persons detained for political reasons, and an end to repression.

We reiterate our call to revolutionary, popular, and genuinely democratic forces to join forces on a common platform to fight for the restoration of the Constitution and the rule of law in the country.

We’re still standing: joining forces and organizing struggles!

Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV)

Caracas, May 21, 2025.