{"id":9087,"date":"2024-11-19T15:48:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T20:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9087"},"modified":"2024-11-20T15:49:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T20:49:29","slug":"u-s-recognizes-venezuelas-opposition-candidate-as-president-elect-months-after-the-disputed-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9087","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Recognizes Venezuela\u2019s Opposition Candidate as President-Elect Months After the Disputed Election"},"content":{"rendered":"
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez waves to supporters at Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, Spain, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo\/Bernat Armangue, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez as the \u201cpresident-elect\u201d of the South American country on Tuesday, months after President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro claimed to have won the July election.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Gonz\u00e1lez in a post on X in which he also demanded \u201crespect for the will\u201d of Venezuelan voters.<\/p>\n

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden previously said Gonz\u00e1lez earned the most votes in the disputed July 28 election but it had fallen short of acknowledging him as president-elect.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But the opposition coalition collected tally sheets<\/a><\/span> from 80% of the nation\u2019s electronic voting machines and posted them online. Gonz\u00e1lez and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado<\/a><\/span> said the voting records showed the former diplomat won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deeply appreciate the recognition of the sovereign will of all Venezuelans,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said in a post on X shortly after Blinken\u2019s statement Tuesday. \u201cThis gesture honors the desire for change of our people and the civic feat that we carried out together on July 28.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez left Venezuela in September for exile in Spain<\/a><\/span> after a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of the vote tally sheets.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s Foreign Minister Yv\u00e1n Gil responded to Blinken\u2019s comment with personal attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d Gil said of Blinken in a statement, which did not mention election results.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s reelection.<\/p>\n

Swift condemnation of the lack of post-election transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela\u2019s Supreme Tribunal of Justice, whose members are aligned with the ruling party, to audit the results. The high court reaffirmed his victory.<\/p>\n

Experts from the United Nations and the U.S.-based Carter Center, which observed the election at the invitation of Maduro\u2019s government, determined the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility. The U.N. experts stopped short of validating the opposition\u2019s claim to victory but said the faction\u2019s voting records published online appear to exhibit all of the original security features.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, Colombia\u2019s President Gustavo Petro, who has friendly relations with Maduro, reversed his support for the July elections, calling the vote a \u201cmistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petro spoke in an interview with Brazilian news outlet Globo News, which released excerpts online that Petro\u2019s office shared Tuesday on social media. Petro told the news outlet Monday while visiting Brazil for the G20 summit<\/a><\/span> that he initially was in favor of Venezuela holding the elections, but that he later decided that the vote was not \u201cfree.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the elections were a mistake,\u201d Petro said. His office did not immediately respond to a request for him to elaborate on the reasons for his change of heart.<\/p>\n

Petro, Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a><\/span> and then-Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador \u2014 all leftists friendly with Maduro \u2014 attempted to make peace as the results came under dispute, but the effort went nowhere.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s next presidential term begins Jan. 10. Maduro has already received an invitation from the ruling party-controlled National Assembly for a swearing-in ceremony.<\/p>\n

– Regina Garcia Cano and Jorge Rueda, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez as the \u201cpresident-elect\u201d of the South American country on Tuesday, months after President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro claimed to have won the July election. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Gonz\u00e1lez in a post on X in which he also demanded \u201crespect for the will\u201d of Venezuelan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":9088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/3114090\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4651x3099+0+0\/resize\/980x653!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fd8%2F5b%2F5b537da732ed363bbb17a76ae284%2Fc30b48059d5d45acb51cdb09f6299497","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9089,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087\/revisions\/9089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}