III 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 213 

Expressing support for the free and peaceful exercise of representative democracy in Venezuela, condemning violence and intimidation against the 

country’s political opposition, and calling for dialogue between all political 

actors in the country. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 1, 2013 

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. NELSON, Mr. KAINE, Mr. 

UDALL of New Mexico, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. KIRK, Mr. GRAHAM, and Mr. 

DURBIN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Relations 

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 

Reported by Mr. MENENDEZ, with an amendment and an amendment to the 

preamble and an amendment to the title 

[Strike out all after the resolving clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[Strike the preamble and insert the part printed in italic] 

OCTOBER 4, 2013 

Considered, amended, and agreed to with an amended preamble and an 

amendment to the title 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing support for the free and peaceful exercise of 

representative democracy in Venezuela, condemning violence and intimidation against the country’s political opposition, and calling for dialogue between all political 

actors in the country. 


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•SRES 213 ATS 

Whereas the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela guarantees its citizens full political rights, including the right to freely associate for democratic political 

purposes, and the right to a secret ballot through regular 

free, universal, direct elections and referenda; 

Whereas the Preamble of the Charter of the Organization of 

American States affirms that ‘‘representative democracy 

is an indispensable condition for the stability, peace and 

development of the region,’’ and Article 1 of the InterAmerican Democratic Charter recognizes that ‘‘the people of the Americas have a right to democracy and their 

governments have an obligation to promote and defend 

it’’; 

Whereas the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela 

declared Nicolas Maduro to have been elected in Venezuela’s April 14, 2013, presidential election, with 50.6 

percent of votes cast; 

Whereas the Senate of the Republic of Chile, the Christian 

Democratic Organization of the Americas, the Socialist 

International, the Union of Latin American parties, and 

other political organizations in the region issued declarations recognizing the alleged irregularities documented by 

the opposition in Venezuela and urged a complete audit 

of the election results; 

Whereas the Supreme Court of Venezuela refused to hear 

legal cases presented by the political opposition regarding 

alleged violations of electoral law, and the CNE denied 

the opposition’s request for a full and comprehensive 

audit of the election results that includes the review and 

comparison of voter registry log books, vote tallies produced by electronic voting machines, and the paper receipts printed by electronic voting machines; 


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•SRES 213 ATS 

Whereas Venezuela’s Unified Democratic Platform (MUD) 

has formally requested the Inter-American Commission 

on Human Rights to conduct an impartial review of alleged violations of Venezuelans’ civic rights through electoral irregularities, voter intimidation, and other abuses 

in the April 2013 elections, and the Government of Venezuela subsequently announced its withdrawal from the 

Inter-American Court on Human Rights; 

Whereas in response to the political opposition’s decision not 

to recognize Nicolas Maduro as President, legislators 

from opposition parties in Venezuela were denied the 

right to speak and removed from key committees by the 

President of the National Assembly, were violently assaulted by members of the ruling United Socialist Party 

of Venezuela (PSUV), and increasingly face the prospect 

of politically-motivated criminal charges; 

Whereas the Congress of the Republic of Peru passed a resolution rejecting the use of violence against opposition parties in the Venezuelan National Assembly and expressing 

solidarity with those injured by the events of April 2013, 

and the Department of State responded to the violence 

against opposition legislators in Venezuela by declaring 

that ‘‘violence has no place in a representative and democratic system, and is particularly inappropriate in the 

National Assembly’’; 

Whereas the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) repudiated the incident by stating that 

it ‘‘reflects, in a dramatic manner, the absence of a political dialogue that can bring tranquility to the citizens and 

to the members of the different public powers to resolve 

in a peaceful climate and with everybody’s participation 

the pending matters of the country’’; and 


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•SRES 213 ATS 

Whereas as a member of the Organization of American 

States and signatory to the Inter-American Democratic 

Charter, the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela has 

agreed to abide by the principles of constitutional, representative democracy, which include free and fair elections and adherence to its own constitution: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) supports the people of Venezuela in their 

3 pursuit of the free exercise of representative democ4 racy as guaranteed by the Constitution of the 

5 Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; 

6 (2) deplores the undemocratic denial of the le7 gitimate rights of opposition parliamentarians in 

8 Venezuela, the inexcusable violence perpetrated 

9 against opposition legislators inside chambers of the 

10 National Assembly, and the growing efforts to use 

11 politically-motivated criminal charges to intimidate 

12 the country’s political opposition; 

13 (3) commends legislators from other countries 

14 in the Americas who have declared their opposition 

15 to alleged electoral irregularities and condemned the 

16 use of violence against opposition parliamentarians 

17 in Venezuela; 

18 (4) urges the Department of State to work in 

19 concert with other countries in the Americas to take 

20 meaningful steps to ensure the rule of law in VenVerDate Mar 15 2010 21:09 Oct 04, 2013 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR213.ATS SR213

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•SRES 213 ATS 

1 ezuela in accordance with the Inter-American Demo2 cratic Charter and to strengthen the ability of the 

3 Organization of American States to respond to the 

4 erosion of democratic norms and institutions in 

5 member states; and 

6 (5) calls for the United States to work with 

7 other countries in the hemisphere to actively encour8 age a process of dialogue between the Government of 

9 Venezuela and the political opposition through the 

10 good offices of the Organization of American States 

11 so that the voices of all Venezuelans can be taken 

12 into account through their country’s constitutional 

13 institutions and free and fair elections. 

Æ 


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