Julio Borges accepts prize and urges world to keep a close eye on Venezuela’s presidential election, where it hopes to end two decades of socialist ruleVenezuela’s opposition has won the EU’s prestigious Sakharav prize for human rights and urged the world to keep a close eye on an upcoming presidential election where it aspires to end two decades of socialist rule in the Opec nation. The prize, named after Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was awarded this year to Venezuela’s National Assembly and “all political prisoners”, according to the citation. Another opposition leader Antonio Ledezma, who recently escaped house arrest in Venezuela and fled to Spain, said the EU prize ceremony was a painful moment because of the scores of opposition activists still jailed. “I cannot be happy receiving this prize knowing that in the dungeons of Venezuela there remain, unjustly deprived of liberty, more than 300 political prisoners,” he said. The European Union last month imposed an arms embargo on Venezuela, adding it to a list that includes North Korea and Syria.

Source: The Guardian December 13, 2017 18:33 UTC