The United States announced on Wednesday that it recognises Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the presidential elections, stating that “irrefutable evidence of the minutes” shows that “he defeated Nicolas Maduro with millions of votes”, although the electoral authority has not yet published the minutes of the elections.
This was announced by the Under Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the US State Department, Brian Nichols, to the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS), an organisation that held an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday regarding the situation in Venezuela, where protests against Chavez have resulted in eleven deaths and more than 1,000 demonstrators arrested.
“The National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by Maduro, declared him the winner of the elections without publishing any detailed data or the recounts at the polling station level. The partial results announced by the CNE of 80 percent (of the vote count) went against the polls prior to the election, at the close and the numerous recounts carried out by experts and observers,” he said.
During his speech, he criticized that after days of requests for the results to be published by polling station, the government “has not shown data of that type or evidence, despite its own promise to do so,” while “the deadline to do so, according to Venezuelan law, has expired.” “The answer seems to be very clear: either they know that the results are that Gonzalez is the winner and they do not want to present them, or they know that Gonzalez won and Maduro needs to prepare falsified documents to support his claim,” he said.
Nichols said that “Venezuelans already knew that these elections do not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic,” so “the CNE’s announcement has no value.” “Maduro and his representatives must recognize Edmundo as the winner of the presidential elections, the world must also recognize Gonzalez’s electoral victory. Those who do not do so will be facilitating Maduro’s massive attempt at fraud and his lack of respect for the rule of law and democratic principles,” he said.
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
The opposition leader, MarÃa Corina Machado, said that the position of the United States before the OAS is “very important,” stating that the evidence of the opposition candidate’s victory “is irrefutable,” as well as her call “for transparency in the process and for the full and verified publication of all the minutes.” “The will of the Venezuelans will be recognized by the entire world,” she concluded.
For his part, the White House National Security spokesman, John Kirby, said during a press conference that the patience of both the United States and the international community “is running out” as they wait for the Venezuelan authorities to “come clean” and publish the minutes of the elections so that the announced results can be demonstrated.
In this regard, he echoed the report by the Carter Center, which specializes in election observation, which concluded that the elections in Venezuela lack sufficient electoral integrity and fail to meet international standards, so they “cannot be considered democratic.” “We share these concerns,” Kirby said.
“I simply want to reiterate that the United States joins other democracies in the region – and, in fact, around the world – in expressing serious concerns about these subversions of democratic norms. (…) The Venezuelan people have taken to the streets to demand that their votes be counted. They cannot be blamed for that,” he said.
He said he had “serious concerns about reports of casualties, violence and arrests,” including warrants issued against opposition leaders. “We condemn political violence and repression of any kind,” the spokesman added.
