“We Will Continue to Fight to Rescue Venezuela’s Democracy”

Lilian Tintori: The situation has worsened since the last time I was here. Today, we still have 78 political prisoners in Venezuela. If we had an economic, political and social crisis before, today we’re in the middle of a humanitarian crisis. There’s a scarcity of food and medicine, there’s inflation — the highest inflation rate in Latin America — and there is a lot of insecurity. Every 20 minutes, a Venezuelan is killed. The number of violent deaths this past year was 25,000. And 2015 will be the most dangerous year in Venezuela’s history. What we’re living is unfortunate; there is a lack of government autonomy, there’s a lack of rule of law, and according to the UN Committee against Torture, there’s an impunity rate of 97 percent. [...] There’s a prisoner of conscience in Latin America. It’s Leopoldo López, my husband. They just sentenced him — unjustly and lacking proof and witnesses — to 14 years in prison. It’s a farce [...] and the world is aware of what’s happening in Venezuela. And due to that awareness, we’re asking the international community to help us secure qualified international observers for the next parliamentary elections on December 6. We want to be able to count on the [Organization of American States] and the European Union during this process. More…