Venezuelan bishops: Country must be rooted in human dignity, popular sovereignty
"It is necessary to rebuild democratic institutions."
The Venezuelan bishops have issued a plea for human dignity and popular sovereignty as the foundation for the country moving forward.
In their first substantive group statement since the United States captured former dictator Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, the bishops of Venezuela released a pastoral letter addressing “the concerns and fears generated by the social, political and economic situation that our country is going through.”
The letter, dated Feb. 9, was measured in its tone. In emphasizing the importance of sovereignty, the bishops recognized that the capture of Maduro “has been interpreted as a violation of international law,” while also asserting that the sovereignty of the people was violated in the 2024 presidential elections.
“Popular sovereignty, expressed through universal, direct, and secret suffrage, was disregarded when state bodies failed to publish the detailed results of the presidential elections of July 28, 2024,” the letter said.
The bishops added that although Maduro’s capture and the surrounding events were controversial, “many believe they pave the way for the country’s democratization.”
The pastoral letter was released at the end of the bishops’ plenary assembly.
It comes as individual bishops have taken differing stances on the events of last month.
In recent weeks, some Venezuelan bishops had been cautiously critical of the Jan. 3 American operation to capture Maduro.
Archbishop González de Zárate, for example, said at a press conference ahead of the bishops’ assembly that the events of Jan. 3 showed a return of the “use of violence to solve internal issues of a nation or controversies between nations.”
“We, the bishops, have said many times that we reject violence, no matter where it comes from,” he continued.
“It seems clear that many decisions taken today in our country are not taken by us Venezuelans, but by external actors.”
Meanwhile, Cardinals Baltazar Porras and Diego Padrón, along with Archbishop Emeritus Ovidio Pérez Morales, recently released an open letter arguing that the will of the Venezuelan people had already been made clear in the 2024 presidential elections.
The cardinals and archbishop alluded to claims by both the opposition and most of the international community that Maduro had committed fraud in the 2024 election, and that opposition candidate Edmundo González won the election.
They called on Catholic leaders throughout the country to demand respect for the 2024 election results, the release of all political prisoners, and guarantees of freedom of speech.
The bishops’ Feb. 9 pastoral letter aligns more closely with the tone of the Porras and Padrón than of González de Zárate.
It emphasized the presidential elections as the expression of the people’s sovereignty and said that the capture of Maduro, while internationally controversial, is largely expected to open the door to democracy in the country.
It called for freedom of expression, free elections, and the release of all political prisoners in the country.
Regarding U.S. proposals to reactivate the country’s oil industry, the Venezuelan bishops said the resources received from the potential program should “be used to improve the quality of wages and implement social programs, conceived not from a partisan patronage perspective … [and to] ensure decent work and remuneration, allowing citizens to live and cover the basic material, social, and intellectual needs.”
The pastoral letter criticized the presence of foreign actors in the country under the Chávez and Maduro regimes. While it did not mention any countries or groups by name, it referenced “irregular groups that control large territories of our country,” which likely refers to Colombian guerrillas such as the ELN, which controls several towns on Venezuela’s eastern border.
It also criticized “foreign groups that have irregularly extracted mining resources with impunity in the southern region of our country,” likely referring to Chinese mining companies that work with garimpeiros, Brazilian illegal miners in the south of Venezuela.
To guarantee the sovereignty and self-determination of Venezuela, the bishops said “it is necessary to rebuild democratic institutions; restore the independence of public authorities; establish a credible Supreme Court of Justice and National Electoral Council that guarantee free and fair elections; ensure the state’s territorial control of the country.”
They emphasized the importance of trust, human dignity, and care for the poor in building a just society.
The pastoral letter quoted Pope Leo’s Jan. 4 Angelus address calling for the good of the Venezuelan people to prevail “over any other consideration,” and saying that “the life of the Venezuelan people has been marked in the past years by generalized poverty… generalized and unpunished corruption, violations of human rights, including freedom of speech, and the right to due process and [legal] defense.”
The bishops reiterated their solidarity with political prisoners, migrants, and people who lack access to medicine, education, and jobs.
They concluded their letter by asking Catholics to promote and engage in “prayerful reading of the Word of God, days of Eucharistic adoration, Stations of the Cross, conversation in the Spirit, which allow us to come together as children of the same land.”
“Trusting in the maternal intercession of Our Lady of Coromoto, we ask that each and every one of us courageously and generously assume our responsibilities so that together we may find progress for our homeland on paths of freedom, justice, and peace,” they said.