Venezuela opposition harassment builds before elections

The Venezuelan government under President Nicolas Maduro continues to threaten and harass opposition candidates ahead of 28 July national elections, where it trails in polls by as much as 60 percentage points.

Since late June dozens of opposition campaign workers have been arrested under unclear charges, with many of them being released, according to figures compiled by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Acceso a la Justicia.

A motorcade for opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado, who has been blocked from registering for the election, was stopped by police in Trujillo state in late June as well. Machado was detained for about an hour but said she was not told why she was held.

Last week Unitary Platform party (PUD) presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez said he was harassed by government workers when boarding a flight on nationally-owned airline Conviasa, who blamed him for the imposition of US sanctions. In a webcast after the incident he said he received a letter from airline employees explaining how they are directed to harass the opposition ahead of time, using government-approved scripts.

On Monday, attorney general Tarek William Saab ratcheted-up tensions even further, claiming in a televised address that the political opposition was trying to hire right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia to assassinate Maduro and attack power infrastructure in Zulia state.

The harassment comes as national polls continue to show Maduro trailing Gonzalez by double-digits. A new poll released Wednesday by Meganalisis has Gonzalez garnering nearly 72pc of the votes to about 12pc for Maduro.

The opposition and Venezuelan human rights NGO Laboratorio de Paz say the tactics violate the Barbados-Qatar agreements Maduro signed with PUD and the US to insure a partial lifting of oil sanctions in exchange of "free and fair" elections. The US has since reimposed sanctions. Maduro has already denied the right to vote to 5mn voting-age Venezuelans living abroad and disinvited the EU's electoral observation team for the elections.

By Carlos Camacho