Venezuela Announces Investments from BRICS Countries, Invites Bloc to Accompany July 28 Election

Mexico City, Mexico, June 18, 2024 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that the country had secured investments from numerous countries from the BRICS bloc, likewise opening the potential for new markets for Venezuelan goods.

The Venezuelan president broke the news in a meeting with the workers of the Orinoco Steel Company (Sidor) on Monday.

“I have already achieved sufficient investments to make the company more powerful and consolidate it with more strength from now on,” Maduro told workers from SIDOR, a critical state-owned steelmaking company that has experienced labor strife in recent years.

The Venezuelan leader later referenced labor struggles in the heavy industries, saying that the government had been working behind the scenes to attend to the workers’ demands.

Sidor was founded in 1953 and was nationalized by the Hugo Chávez government in 2008. The massive steelmaking complex was hard-hit by the country’s economic crisis and US sanctions. Workers have staged numerous protests and actions to demand respect for their labor rights and an end to the criminalization of their struggle. Leftist organizations have denounced the arrest of union leaders Leonardo Azócar and Daniel Romero, who have spent a year in prison.

“We will advance the full recovery of all contractual rights of workers and companies in the months to come,” said Maduro during his weekly television program, broadcast from the eastern state of Bolívar.

Maduro, who is seeking re-election in the upcoming presidential election, also used the opportunity to contrast the economic strategies between his government and the right-wing opposition. 

“Here there are two visions, two models: ours, of sovereignty and productive recovery, and theirs, which is all about looting and privatizing,” said Maduro.

Vice Minister for Latin America Rander Peña said on Tuesday that Venezuela had invited the members of the 20-country BRICS+ bloc, including key global players China and Russia, to accompany the upcoming election on July 28 and reiterated his country’s intention to soon join the multilateral organization.

“Venezuela aspires to become a full member of the BRICS+ this year, our country has a set of potentials to contribute as a member of the BRICS in the immediate future,” said Peña.

During a recent visit to Russia, Foreign Minister Yván Gil likewise expressed Venezuela’s interest in becoming the second Latin American country to join BRICS. During a visit earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced Moscow’s support for Venezuela’s bid. 

Similarly, during Maduro’s visit to China, the two countries announced they had upgraded their countries’ relations to an “all-weather strategic partnership” and made Venezuela the first Latin American country to reach this high diplomatic level.

The invitation of the BRICS+ countries to accompany the election comes after a decision by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) to withdraw its invitation for the European Union (EU) to send an observation mission. Caracas pointed to the EU’s continued sanctions policy against the country.

Hardline opposition candidate Edmundo González, widely understood to be a stand-in candidate for far-right opposition leader María Corina Machado, recently rejected Maduro’s offer to have all candidates pledge to recognize the outcome of the presidential vote, regardless of the outcome. 

Venezuela has not entered the official campaign period but candidates have nonetheless been staging rallies. 

During a rally this month in the state of Nueva Esparta, Machado made a slip and addressed the crowd as if she were the candidate. 

“When I am president of Venezuela, I will also be their [political opponents’] president. I’m going to be the president of everyone,” Machado told the crowd.

Machado’s name is not on the ballot after her political disqualification was upheld by the Venezuelan Supreme Court in January. The 74-year-old former diplomat González was a surprise last-minute consensus choice for an opposition that has been marred by infighting in recent years. 

With González deferring to Machado and limiting himself to closed-door meetings and small gatherings, her overt campaigning has led to speculation of a potential disqualification. 

The opposition’s campaign suffered a serious blow with the imminent loss of Venezuela’s most important foreign asset, CITGO, as a US-court-mandated sale advanced further. The US-backed hardline opposition has exercised control over Venezuela’s US-based refiner since 2019 and the change of ownership for state-owned CITGO is widely perceived as falling on its shoulders.

In recent weeks, Venezuelan opposition operators and allied US politicians have called on the Biden administration to intervene in the CITGO auction to shield anti-government factions from a political cost in the Caribbean nation’s July 28 presidential elections.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.