Censorship in Venezuela: Condemn Chavism’s Blockade of Three Media Days Ahead of Elections

Venezuela’s largest opposition coalition Democratic Unity Platform (PUD), this Tuesday condemned that the country’s main servers They will block access to three Venezuelan media outlets. Starting Monday, six days before the presidential election on July 28.

“From the unitary platform, we denounce the blockade of digital media in Venezuela,” the party wrote on X.

The National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) reported that the banned media outlets were TalCual, Runrunes, Motivation As well as the website of the civil association Medianalisis which was considered. “Escalation against freedom of the press, expression and media.”

The Kurdistan Democratic Union Party said that “continuing to impose censorship on the media is a measure of those who know that they are lost (referring to the regime Nicolas Maduro) and seeking to restrict access to information, in light of the elections.

The opposition coalition confirmed that through its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia“Freedom of the press” will be guaranteed in Venezuela, where “a near-total media blackout” is maintained – according to the Inter-American Press Association, due to the silencing of television channels and radio stations.

Since the start of the election campaign on July 4, 10 portals, including news and non-profit organizations, have been blocked, according to the non-governmental organization Espacio Publico.

They will compete for the presidency on July 28. 10 candidatesGonzalez Urrutia leads conventional opinion polls and will seek to prevent the re-election of Maduro, who is seeking his third consecutive six-year term.

Earlier this Tuesday, Three opponents of the largest anti-Chavista coalitionHe denounced the Democratic Unionist Program (PUD). “Barriers” In the National Electoral Council (CNE) system in Venezuela Collective accreditation of witnesses, Who will monitor the voting in the presidential elections scheduled for next July 28?

The Unity Platform coalition confirms that it has registered more than 90,000 witnesses, but technical difficulties have prevented it from printing the credentials necessary to carry out its mission.

Political parties appoint election observers to ensure the proper development of the process and to report irregularities.

Through a video clip shared on the X website, the former deputy Delsa Solorzano He said the CNE had implemented “various mechanisms” in the automated system to slow down the adoption of 100% of witnesses.

“It has not been possible to make progress in the mass accreditation of witnesses because of a system that seems designed to slow down the process,” Solorzano said, accompanied by anti-Chavista activists. Juan Carlos Calderaleader of the Primero Justicia party, and Perkins RochaPUD Campaign Consultant.

“We are talking about 90,000 people who have decided to accept this enormous responsibility and prepare (…)”, he added. “Without proof of accreditation, I doubt that the Republican plan (military deployment to guard the elections) will give them access to the centers,” Perkins Rocha, spokesman for González Urrutia’s campaign leadership, said in a statement to the press.

Solorzano explained that “certifying witnesses one by one” from the PUD, given the enormous size, is “practically impossible,” so he asked the National Elections Commission to “solve the technical problem.”

For his part, Caldera denounced that there are “witnesses who have already been uploaded and approved,” but when they go to verify them, the system says that “that witness does not exist.”

(With information from EFE and AFP)