Khmer Movement for Democracy (KMD) stands in firm solidarity with the people of Venezuela and demands that the freely expressed will of the Venezuelan voters is accepted, respected and honoured with a democratic change of the government in Caracas.

Having witnessed in 2013 in Cambodia the same scenario from the manual of authoritarian regimes, the Khmer people understand the dismay and the anger of Venezuela’s democratic forces and population at this new brutal attack of Maduro’s criminal regime on the democratically expressed will of the Venezuelan voters

Just like in Cambodia in 2013 the authorities of Maduro’s regime allowed for the united opposition to participate in the sham electoral process, for the people to vote, only for the regime-controlled electoral, judicial and administrative officials to declare an unrealistic and forged narrow win of the de-facto defeated regime. What followed in Cambodia is known to the whole world, and is nothing new to Venezuelans: more oppression, more arrests, more impoverishment of the people, more corruption, more millions in the pockets of the regime cronies, more crime, more migration and more coordination among ruthless dictators.

The theft of the free will of the people through sham elections and declared fake results cannot and must not be accepted by the international community. No dictator should be receiving more support than the democratic will of the people. No authoritarian ruler should have the right to steal the future away from the people of his nation. No regime should be able to manipulate the international community to their own personal favour and the favour of their cronies. No oppressor should believe that justice will not get him.

Having suffered the fate of the Venezuelans, we insist that a government based on the democratic will of the Venezuela people should be recognised.

KMD urges the international community, the member states of the Organisation of American States (OAS) and all the UN members to be firm in condemning the manipulation of the election results by the Venezuelan criminal regime. From KMD we raise our voice in insisting that the original election tallies are published and elections repeated where they could not be organised transparently, in accordance to the law and with full participation of the opposition and international observers.

The prevailing of freedom should not be an option, but it must be a determining factor for corporation with a government that has in its constitution an obligation to respect the democratic will of the people.What happens in Venezuela today matters not only to Venezuela. It matters equally to Cambodia and the rest of the world. We cannot all be imprisoned or expelled to an exile. The freedom loving Khmer people in Cambodia and in the diaspora are determined in expressing strong solidarity with the Venezuelan people. This fight is a joint fight. The victory of democracy in Venezuela must be a joint victory of all democrats in Venezuela and abroad.