By REGINA GARCIA CANO, GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
CARACAS, Venezuela — The U.S. government on Thursday recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González because the winner of the South American country's presidential election, discrediting the result announced by electoral authorities that had 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 majority of votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an announcement.
The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of Sunday’s highly anticipated election, however the president’s essential challenger, Gonzalezand opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have said they’ve greater than two thirds of the the tally sheets which each electronic voting machine printed out after the polling stations closed.
They said the publication of the information on these counts would prove that Maduro has lost.
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The US government’s announcement got here as a part of diplomatic efforts Maduro let go Vote counting from that Choice According to officials from Brazil and Mexico, there are increasing calls for an independent review of the outcomes.
Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are in constant contact with Maduro's government to persuade him to present the ballots from Sunday's election and permit an impartial review, a Brazilian government official told the Associated Press on Thursday.
Officials have told the Venezuelan government that presenting the information is the one option to dispel any doubts concerning the results, said the Brazilian official, who asked to not be identified because he was not authorized to talk publicly concerning the diplomatic efforts.
A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for a similar reason, confirmed that the three governments have discussed the problem with Venezuela, but didn’t provide details. Earlier, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he planned to talk with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro and that his government considered it vital that the election results be made public.
Later Thursday, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement urging Venezuelan electoral authorities to “move forward expeditiously” and release detailed election results, but didn’t confirm that there had been any closed-door diplomatic efforts to pressure Maduro's government to release the election results.
“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through an impartial verification of the results,” the statement said.
After the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the election on Monday, hundreds of opposition supporters took to the streets. The government said it had arrested lots of of protesters and the Venezuela-based human rights group Foro Penal said 11 people were killed. Dozens more were arrested the next day, including former opposition candidate Freddy Superlano.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado – who was excluded from the presidential candidacy – and Gonzalez On Tuesday, they addressed a big rally of their supporters within the capital Caracas, but haven’t been seen in public since. Later that day, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez called for his or her arrest, calling them criminals and fascists.
In an opinion piece published within the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Machado said she was “in hiding because she fears for her life, her freedom and that of her compatriots.” She reiterated that the opposition had solid evidence that Maduro had lost the election and called on the international community to intervene.
“We voted out Mr. Maduro,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”
Years of presidency repression have driven opposition leaders into exile. After the editorial was published, Machado's team told the AP that she was “seeking protection.” Machado later posted a video on social media urging her supporters to assemble across the country on Saturday morning.
There was no comment from the González campaign team on the editorial.
On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela’s highest court perform an examination the election, but this demand almost immediately drew criticism from foreign observers He said the court was too near the federal government to find a way to conduct an independent review.
It shouldn’t be clear whether Maduro's first concession to demands for greater transparency was the results of talks with Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Venezuela's president confirmed during a press conference on Wednesday that he had spoken to Petro about it.
Venezuela's Supreme Court is closely linked to Maduro's government. The court's judges are nominated by federal officials and confirmed by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.
On Thursday, the court granted Maduro's request for an investigation and ordered him, González and the eight other candidates who participated within the presidential election to look before the judges on Friday.
González and Machado say they’ve greater than two-thirds of the the tally sheets printed by electronic voting machines after the polls closed. They said that the publication of the information on these counts can be a defeat for Maduro.
When asked why electoral authorities had not released detailed vote counts, Maduro said the National Electoral Council had been the goal of attacks, including cyberattacks, without providing further details.
The presidents of Colombia and Brazil – each close allies of the Venezuelan government – called on Maduro to release detailed data on the vote count.
The Brazilian official said the diplomatic effort was simply intended to advertise dialogue amongst Venezuelan stakeholders to barter an answer to the disputed election. The official said this might include releasing election data and allowing for an independent review.
López Obrador said Mexico hopes that the desire of the Venezuelan people will probably be respected and that there will probably be no violence. He added that Mexico expects “the evidence, the records of the electoral results, to be presented.”
Since the election, pressure on the president has been growing.
The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has not yet released results broken down by voting machine, unlike in previous elections. However, it reported that Maduro received 5.1 million votes while González received greater than 4.4 million. But opposition leader Machado said vote tallies showed that González received around 6.2 million votes while Maduro received only 2.7 million.
Venezuela has the the most important proven crude oil reserves on the earth and was once probably the most developed economy in Latin America, but after Maduro got here to power in 2013, the country went into free fall. Falling oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that exceeded 130,000 percent led to social unrest and mass emigration.
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the most important exodus within the recent history of Latin America.
Sá Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press correspondent María Verza in Mexico City contributed.
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