US recognizes Venezuela's opposition candidate as president-elect months
after the disputed election
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 [November 20, 2024]
By REGINA GARCIA CANO and JORGE RUEDA
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The U.S. government recognized Venezuelan
opposition candidate Edmundo González as the “president-elect” of the
South American country on Tuesday, months after President Nicolás Maduro
claimed to have won the July election.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized González in a post on
X in which he also demanded “respect for the will” of Venezuelan voters.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden previously said González
earned the most votes in the disputed July 28 election but it had fallen
short of acknowledging him as president-elect.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro
loyalists, declared Maduro the election winner hours after polls closed.
Unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not
provide detailed vote counts.
But the opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 80% of the
nation’s electronic voting machines and posted them online. González and
opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the voting records showed
the former diplomat won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
“We deeply appreciate the recognition of the sovereign will of all
Venezuelans,” González said in a post on X shortly after Blinken's
statement Tuesday. “This gesture honors the desire for change of our
people and the civic feat that we carried out together on July 28.”
González left Venezuela in September for exile in Spain after a warrant
was issued for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the
publishing of the vote tally sheets.
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Yván Gil responded to Blinken's comment
with personal attacks.
"In the last days of his government, he should dedicate himself to
reflecting on his failures, getting rid of imperial and colonial
complexes and going to write the memoirs of how the Bolivarian
Revolution made him bite the dust of defeat, just like his
predecessors," Gil said of Blinken in a statement, which did not mention
election results.
Maduro and electoral authorities have rejected repeated calls from the
U.S., the European Union, Colombia, Brazil and other nations to show the
detailed vote records that back up the president's reelection.
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Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González waves to supporters at
Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, Spain, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat
Armangue, File)
Swift condemnation of the lack of post-election transparency
prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice,
whose members are aligned with the ruling party, to audit the
results. The high court reaffirmed his victory.
Experts from the United Nations and the U.S.-based Carter Center,
which observed the election at the invitation of Maduro’s
government, determined the results announced by electoral
authorities lacked credibility. The U.N. experts stopped short of
validating the opposition’s claim to victory but said the faction’s
voting records published online appear to exhibit all of the
original security features.
Earlier in the week, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, who has
friendly relations with Maduro, reversed his support for the July
elections, calling the vote a “mistake.”
Petro spoke in an interview with Brazilian news outlet Globo News,
which released excerpts online that Petro’s office shared Tuesday on
social media. Petro told the news outlet Monday while visiting
Brazil for the G20 summit that he initially was in favor of
Venezuela holding the elections, but that he later decided that the
vote was not “free.”
“I think the elections were a mistake,” Petro said. His office did
not immediately respond to a request for him to elaborate on the
reasons for his change of heart.
Petro, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and
then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — all leftists
friendly with Maduro — attempted to make peace as the results came
under dispute, but the effort went nowhere.
Venezuela’s next presidential term begins Jan. 10. Maduro has
already received an invitation from the ruling party-controlled
National Assembly for a swearing-in ceremony.
___
Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer
Astrid Suarez contributed to this report from Bogota, Colombia.
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