US Recognizes Opposition Candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as Winner of Venezuelan Presidential Election

US Recognizes Opposition Candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as Winner of Venezuelan Presidential Election

The U.S. government on Thursday recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the election. Presidential election in a South American countrydiscrediting the results announced by the electoral authorities who declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner.

“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people, that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of Sunday’s highly anticipated election, but the president’s main opponent, González, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said they had obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets printed by each electronic voting machine after polls closed.

Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez
Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez rides a truck during a protest against the official results of the presidential elections that declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 30, 2024, two days after.

Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images


They said that the publication of data on these counts would prove Maduro’s defeat.

The U.S. government’s announcement comes amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release election results and 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 Maduro’s administration to convince it that it must show the records of Sunday’s election and allow for an impartial verification, a Brazilian government official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

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 asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly about diplomatic efforts.

A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reasons, confirmed that the three governments had discussed the issue with Venezuela, but did not provide details. Earlier, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he planned to speak with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and that his government considered it important that the election results be made public.

Later Thursday, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela’s electoral authorities “to move quickly and publicly release” detailed voting data, but they did not confirm any behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro’s government to release the vote tallies.

“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,” they said in the statement.

Press conference of President Maduro
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a press conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024.

Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg via Getty Images


On Monday, after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the election, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets. said it had arrested hundreds of protesters According to Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal, 11 people were killed. Dozens more were arrested the following day, including former opposition candidate Freddy Superlano.

Opposition leader Machado, who was barred from running in the presidential election, and González spoke at a large rally of their supporters in the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday, but they have not been seen in public since. Later in the day, National Assembly Speaker 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 was in hiding “because she fears for her life, her freedom and that of her countrymen.” She reiterated that the opposition had material evidence that Maduro had lost the election and urged the international community to intervene.

“We have voted Mr. Maduro out of office,” she wrote. “It is now up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a manifestly illegitimate government.”

Opposition supporters protest Nicolas Maduro's re-election
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez raise their hands together during a protest against the outcome of the presidential election on July 30, 2024 in Caracas, Venezuela.

Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images


Government repression has driven opposition leaders into exile over the years. After the op-ed was published, Machado’s team told the AP they were “taking shelter.” Machado then posted a video on social media calling on his supporters to rally Saturday morning across the country.

Gonzalez’s campaign team had no comment on the editorial.

On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela’s highest court to conduct an audit of the election, but the request almost immediately drew criticism from foreign observers who said the court was too close to the government to produce an independent review.

It is unclear whether Maduro’s initial concession to transparency demands is the result of talks with Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. The Venezuelan president confirmed at a news conference Wednesday that he had spoken to Petro about it.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice is closely tied to Maduro’s government. The court’s judges are nominated by federal authorities and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro supporters.

On Thursday, the court accepted Maduro’s request for an audit and ordered him, González and the eight other candidates who ran in the presidential election to appear before judges on Friday.

VENEZUELA-ELECTION-VOTE-CONSEQUENCES-MADURO-SUPPORTS
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro take part in a rally in Caracas on July 31, 2024.

JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images


González and Machado claim to have obtained more than two-thirds of the electronic ballots after the polls closed. They say the publication of the data on these ballots would prove Maduro’s defeat.

Asked why electoral authorities have not released a detailed vote count, Maduro said the National Electoral Council had been the target of attacks, including cyberattacks, without giving further details.

The presidents of Colombia and Brazil, two close allies of the Venezuelan government, have urged Maduro to release detailed vote tallies.

The Brazilian official said the diplomatic efforts were only intended to promote dialogue between Venezuelan stakeholders to negotiate a solution to the disputed election. He added that this would include the publication of voting data and the possibility of independent verification.

López Obrador said Mexico hopes that the will of the Venezuelan people will be respected and that there will be no violence. He added that Mexico hopes that “the evidence, the electoral records, will be presented.”

Pressure has been mounting on the president since the election.

The National Electoral Council, loyal to Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSV), has yet to release detailed results by voting machine, as it did in previous elections. It said, however, that Maduro had garnered 5.1 million votes, compared to more than 4.4 million for González. But Machado, the opposition leader, said the vote count showed González had garnered about 6.2 million votes, compared to 2.7 million for Maduro.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves and was once Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it went into freefall after Maduro came to power in 2013. Plunging oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that topped 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.