Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has said that the violent protests in Venezuela, which have led\u00a0to three\u00a0deaths, have little domestic support.<\/p>\n
He stated that the vast majority of Venezuelans are committed to the\u00a0democratic process and the organisers should heed President Maduro\u2019s call for dialogue.<\/p>\n
Deputy Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the victory of President Maduro in free, fair and transparent democratic elections in April 2013, right-wing reactionary forces have tried to undermine Venezuela\u2019s democratic process and destabilise the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week these right-wing forces took to the streets to incite violence, encourage discontent,\u00a0and bring down the democratically elected Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir violence has targeted Government and public buildings, and\u00a0bears all the hallmarks\u00a0and patterns of\u00a0previous\u00a0actions in 2002, which led to a military coup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis coup failed and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, with his democratic mandate, was\u00a0reinstated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMedia and independent reports are now suggesting\u00a0that this latest\u00a0violence has resulted in the death of at least three people, with the authorities reporting that twenty three people were also injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opposition in Venezuela is still clearly incensed by the results of last year\u2019s independently monitored, free and fair election,\u00a0and they need to respect the democratic outcome of that election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want to\u00a0bring about a change of\u00a0Government then\u00a0they\u00a0can do this by trying to win\u00a0the support of the majority of the population in democratic elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have failed to do this\u00a0in the last election and in\u00a0numerous elections before that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protesters\u00a0have very little international support for their violent\u00a0actions and even less support among the vast majority of Venezuelans who are committed to a democratic future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cThese protesters\u00a0need to rethink their strategy and the dangerous societal divisions they are sowing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe leaders of the protests\u00a0need to pause and listen\u00a0to the sincere\u00a0call of President Maduro for dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile peaceful protests are of course legitimate, the opposition need\u00a0to accept President Maduro\u2019s democratic mandate, and to cease their senseless violence immediately.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has said that the violent protests in Venezuela, which have led\u00a0to three\u00a0deaths, have little domestic support. He stated that the vast majority of Venezuelans are committed to the\u00a0democratic process and the organisers should heed President Maduro\u2019s call for dialogue. Deputy Crowe said: \u201cSince the victory of President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1598,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions\/1598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}