VENEZUELA-Brazil 'Concerned' About Electoral Process

Wires carrying comments attributed to the Brazilian gov't claiming that it is "concerned" about the electoral process in Venezuela. Adds its view that the inability of opposition candidate Corina Yoris to enroll in the election is "not compatible with the Barbados Agreement." The inability of the Unitary Platform (PU) toput forward Yoris' application has been seen as a further effort by incumbent President Nicolas Maduro to stifle the opposition ahead of the July presidential election.

• The Brazilian gov'ts comments come as something of a change in stance from those made earlier in March by President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. The Brazilian Report wrote that Lula, "told reporters that Venezuela "knows" it must hold "democratic" elections, which he hopes will convince the US to end sanctions against the country. Lula added that he "hopes" the Venezuela opposition will not act like former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and reject the election results "
• On the electoral ban for PU leader Maria Corina Machado, "Lula touched on the incident...noting that he himself had been barred from running in the presidential election of 2018, while he was in jail for later-quashed corruption charges. "Instead of crying about it, I nominated another candidate who disputed the elections,".