Special envoy Brian Mier comes with the latest from Caracas, Venezuela regarding the upcoming presidential elections that will be celebrated next July 28th. teleSUR
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00:00And now we are going to make a contact with our special envoy Brian Meard who is in Caracas
00:06to bring us all the latest updates on the upcoming elections in Venezuela next July
00:11the 28th.
00:12Hi Brian, what are the latest highlights from the country?
00:17Good evening.
00:18Well, already over 600 international election observers have confirmed that they're going
00:24to be in Venezuela on July 28th, five days from now, to monitor the presidential elections.
00:32These names include people from the United Nations who sent four observers here and also
00:38non-governmental organizations including some very respected ones like the Carter Center
00:44which is generally considered one of the best election monitoring organizations in the world
00:48since the 1980s.
00:51But today Brazil's President Lula announced that he's going to send his special advisor
00:57on foreign relations, Celso Amorim, one of the most powerful men or people in Brazilian
01:03politics.
01:04Amorim has been a member of every presidential government in high-level positions since the
01:111970s except for the Jair Bolsonaro administration.
01:16He's generally viewed as the third most powerful figure in the Brazilian government, in the
01:22executive branch of the government.
01:24And his coming here is a sign that Brazil's really paying attention to these elections.
01:30In May, after the Maduro administration invited Brazil's superior election court to send observers,
01:38it initially declined.
01:39But then in early June the presidency of the electoral court changed hands and last week
01:45they also announced that they're sending two observers here to monitor the elections on the 28th.
01:51So what does this all mean?
01:54Brazil has been trying to project itself as a major player in international geopolitics
02:00after four years of isolation during which Brazil almost became a pariah state under
02:06former President far-right Jair Bolsonaro who happens to be an ally of Maria Corina Machado
02:14in the far-right opposition group that's trying to take power here.
02:18It's hard to predict how Brazil's really going to act.
02:21They've been sending out a lot of mixed messages over the last few months about the Venezuelan elections.
02:27But my take on this is that after the results come in, Celso Amorim is going to push for
02:36respecting the results independently of which candidate wins.
02:41That would be in the style of his long tradition of diplomacy and in that case he would be
02:47a welcome addition to the international monitoring group of people who are coming here to monitor
02:54the elections this Sunday.
02:56Paul, thank you very much, Brian, for your remarks in the context of these key days ahead
03:04of the presidential elections.