The stakes grew higher for Venezuela’s electoral authority to show proof backing its decision to declare Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the country’s presidential election on Thursday after the US recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the victor, discrediting the official results of the vote.
The US announcement followed calls from multiple governments, including close allies of Maduro, for Venezuela’s National Electoral Council to release detailed vote counts, as it has done during previous elections.
The electoral body declared Maduro the winner on Monday, but the main opposition coalition revealed hours later that it had evidence to the contrary in the form of more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed.
Photo: AFP
“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Maduro responded with a quick admonishment.
“The United States needs to keep its nose out of Venezuela,” he wrote on social media.
The US government announcement came amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release vote tallies from the election and increasing calls for an independent review of the results.
Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with Maduro’s administration to convince him that he must show the vote tally sheets from the election and allow impartial verification, a Brazilian government official said.
The government officials have told the Venezuelan government that showing the data is the only way to dispel any doubt about the results, said the Brazilian official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the diplomatic efforts and requested anonymity.
A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, confirmed the three governments had been discussing the issue with Venezuela, but did not provide details.
Earlier, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he planned to speak with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro about the issue.
Later on Thursday, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela’s electoral authorities “to move forward expeditiously and publicly release” detailed voting data.
“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,” they said in the statement.
After the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the election on Monday, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets. The government said it arrested hundreds of protesters and Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal said 11 people were killed.
Dozens more were arrested the following day, including a former opposition candidate, Freddy Superlano.
In an op-ed published on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said that she is “hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen.”
She reasserted that the opposition has physical evidence that Maduro lost the election and urged the international community to intervene.
“We have voted Mr Maduro out,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”
After the op-ed was published, Machado’s team said that she was “sheltering.” Machado later posted a video on social media calling on supporters to gather today across the nation.
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