Asunción, Agencia IP.- Paraguayan President Santiago Peña received Venezuela’s president-elect, Edmundo González Urrutia, who expressed gratitude for Paraguay’s support of democratic freedom in Venezuela.
Paraguay officially recognizes González as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential elections held last July. This recognition led to the severance of diplomatic relations with Nicolás Maduro’s government and Paraguay’s international denunciation of electoral fraud.
In an interview with CNN International on the day of Maduro’s inauguration for a third consecutive term, President Peña stated that Venezuela is under a dictatorship, citing the lack of guarantees for free and transparent elections and the persecution of opposition members.
During his meeting with González in Washington, Peña reaffirmed his support for democratic freedom. «This is the most important message I’m taking away today because it aligns with the support we are receiving from countries across the region,» González said in statements published by the Office of the Presidency.
«Venezuela is currently under a regime that does not respect human rights or democratic freedoms, and that is precisely why we are deeply committed to working with the region,» he added, according to the same source.