Amid suspicion about Nicolás Maduro’s “official victory”, several countries are still waiting for proof of the number of votes. Candidates must appear before the Supreme Court this Friday.
(DW) The United States, Argentina and Uruguay have recognized the victory of Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia in last Sunday’s election.
The announcement by Uruguay and Argentina came on Friday (02/08), a day after the US recognition. Peru, the first to endorse González, had already announced its position on Tuesday.
Speaking on behalf of the US on Thursday, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, cited “overwhelming evidence” that González “received the majority of votes in Venezuela’s presidential election on July 28”.
A day later, Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino said on the social network X that “we can all confirm, without any room for doubt, that the legitimate winner and president-elect is Edmundo González”.
In her statement, Mondino referred to a Venezuelan opposition website that compiles electoral records according to which, with another 81% of the records digitized, González would have 67% of the votes. The National Electoral Council (CNE), on the other hand, has yet to release all the minutes that would prove the final result of the election and claims that Maduro won with 51% of the vote against 44% for the opposition.
“The international community, for the most part, is going to accept that it was all a big fraud and that the dictator Maduro needs to leave power and give way, once and for all, to democratic actions and what the Venezuelan people want, which is to live in peace and democracy,” Manuel Adorni, spokesman for the Argentine presidency, told journalists at the Casa Rosada.
Soon after Argentina, the Uruguayan government echoed the US, also citing “overwhelming evidence” and asking that the will of the Venezuelan people “be respected”.
On Wednesday, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou had already said that if Venezuela hasn’t released the electoral records of the election, “it’s because there’s something strange”.
“If you don’t show the documents, it’s clear that there’s something strange,” Lacalle Pou told journalists. “I said that Venezuela is a dictatorship and I stand by that.”
Argentina, Uruguay and Paru are part of the group of seven countries that had their diplomatic corps expelled from Venezuela after contesting the results of the Venezuelan election.
Opposition to appeal to Supreme Court
The statements by the US and Argentina put even more pressure on the Chavista regime, led by Nicolás Maduro, who has presided over Venezuela for 11 years.
This Friday, González, Maduro and eight other candidates who ran in the election are due to appear before the country’s Supreme Court at 3pm Brasília time to begin an audit of the vote.
Both the CNE and the Supreme Court, however, are aligned with Maduro. The electoral body, for example, is chaired by Elvis Amoroso, an ally of the current president.
The result released by the regime, which indicated Maduro’s victory, has been contested by the international community, such as the European Union and several Latin American countries, which prefer to wait for the full release of the minutes before commenting on the issue.
As a result, as well as expelling diplomats from Argentina, Uruguay and Paru, the Chavista regime has also banned representatives from Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
Argentina, in whose embassy in Venezuela six opponents of the Maduro regime have taken refuge, is awaiting the arrival of its expelled diplomats at dawn on Saturday. The Peruvian and Argentinian diplomatic buildings are guarded by Brazil.
Parallel count
The Unitary Democratic Platform (PUD), the party for which González is running, disputes the results released by the regime. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who had been barred from running by the regime-controlled courts, said on Monday that there are means to prove an “overwhelming victory” for González Urrutia in the presidential elections.
Machado pointed out that, according to 73.2% of the records, Maduro received 2,759,256 votes, while González received 6,275,182. The opposition activist explained that all these minutes have been verified, digitized and made available on an internet portal created by the opposition.
On Thursday, a study carried out by Brazilian and foreign researchers based on these minutes also indicated that González won the presidential election with 66.1% of the votes against Maduro’s 31.3%. The survey also shows that the opposition advanced on former political strongholds of Chavismo.
More than a thousand have been arrested
According to a survey carried out by the office of lawyer and human rights activist Alfredo Romero, who works for the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal, more than a thousand people have been arrested in recent days as a result of the protests taking place in different cities across the country.
According to a statement on the independent website Pitazo, he has taken on the defense of at least 50 cases, including those of eleven minors and a young disabled man, who are between 15 and 17 years old.
According to Foro Penal, at least 11 people have died in protests against the election results due to the repression imposed by the Chavista regime. Other organizations, however, already speak of more than 20 cases.
Differences to Guaidó’s time
Despite the authoritarian course of Chavismo over the last few decades, the 2015 parliamentary elections seemed to have interrupted this process, with the opposition winning the majority of seats in the National Assembly and ending 16 years of government control of the House. However, Maduro has come to govern by ignoring the legislature.
In 2017, the Chavista-dominated Supreme Court suspended the prerogatives of the opposition-controlled National Assembly and took over its functions, in a move described as a “coup d’état” by critics of the regime.
Following this manoeuvre, Maduro convened a new Constituent Assembly, whose members were elected in a ballot not recognized by the opposition and a large part of the international community. This body, controlled by Chavismo, was convened to take over the functions of the National Assembly. The Constituent Assembly lasted until 2020, when new parliamentary elections were held, again in a vote contested by opponents and several countries.
In 2018, Maduro had been re-elected in an election marked by irregularities and which was also not recognized by a large part of the international community. Soon after the Chavista took office for a second term, at the beginning of 2019, the then president of the National Assembly, the opposition Juan Guaidó, declared himself interim president of Venezuela – without direct presidential elections, therefore.
Guaidó was recognized by the United States and 60 other countries, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS). The country was then gripped by huge protests against Maduro, which attracted thousands of Venezuelans. The “interim government” was supposed to function until free elections were held following Maduro’s resignation.
Even with the large protests and the serious economic crisis, the opposition led by Guaidó failed to gain support from the military and the judiciary, and Maduro further strengthened his control over the institutions.
Without results and with the international community no longer recognizing Guaidó, the opposition ended the “interim government” in 2022, ending the attempt to isolate Maduro and promote a change of government in the country.
gb/le/ra (EFE, ots)