US government recognizes opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the elections in Venezuela
The US recognizes Edmundo González as the winner of the elections in Venezuela, discrediting the official results. Know the details.
2024-08-02T19:00:55+00:00- The results that declared Nicolás Maduro the winner are discredited.
- The governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are putting pressure on Maduro.
- They want them to publish detailed voting data and allow for impartial verification.
On Thursday, the US government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election.
The US discredits the results announced by the electoral authorities that declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner.
«Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, more importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the majority of the votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.»
That’s what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
US recognizes Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner in Venezuela
The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of Sunday’s long-awaited election.
But the president’s main rival, Edmundo Gonzalez, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have said they obtained more than two-thirds of the voting records that each electronic voting machine printed after the polls closed.
They said that the publication of the data from those results would prove that Maduro lost.
The US government’s announcement came amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release the election results.
There are also growing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials in Brazil and Mexico.
Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with the Maduro administration.
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This is to convince him to show the voting records from Sunday’s election and allow for impartial verification, a Brazilian government official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement calling on Venezuelan electoral authorities to “move quickly and publicly publish” detailed voting data.
Thousands of supporters take to the streets
But they did not confirm any behind-closed-doors diplomatic efforts to persuade the Maduro government to release the election results.
«The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,» they said in the statement.
On Monday, after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the election, 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.
Opposition leader Machado — who has been barred from running for president — and Gonzalez addressed a large rally of their supporters in the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday but have not been seen in public since.
Later that day, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez called for their arrest, calling them criminals and fascists.
In an op-ed published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Machado said she is “in hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom and that of my fellow countrymen.”
They say Maduro lost the elections
He reaffirmed that the opposition has physical evidence that Maduro lost the elections and urged the international community to intervene.
“We have voted Mr. Maduro out of power,” he wrote. “It is now up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”
On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela’s highest court to conduct an audit of the election.
But that request almost immediately drew criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.
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