US declares Gonzalez victor in Venezuela polls, rejects Maduro's claim

The US government on Thursday recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the South American country's presidential election, discrediting the results announced by electoral authorities who declared President Nicolás Maduro the victor.The U.S. announcement followed calls from multiple governments, including close allies of Maduro, for Venezuela's National Electoral Council to release detailed vote counts, as it has done during previous elections.Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has issued a statement challenging Venezuela's official election results, declaring opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the true winner of the July 28 presidential election.Blinken states that the National Electoral Council's declaration of Maduro's victory is "deeply flawed" and lacks credibility. 

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has issued a statement challenging Venezuela's official election results, declaring opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the true winner of… pic.twitter.com/mo9GiY4nNa

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 2, 2024

The announcement from the US government came amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release vote tallies from the election and increasing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials from Brazil and Mexico. The governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela's electoral authorities “to move forward expeditiously and publicly release” detailed voting data, but they did not confirm any backroom diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro's government to publish the vote tallies. “The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,” they said in the statement. 
Opposition leader Machado — who was barred from running for president — and González addressed a huge rally of their supporters in the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday, but they have not been seen in public since. Later that day, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, called for their arrest, calling them criminals and fascists.Machado said she is “hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen.” She reasserted that the opposition has physical evidence that Maduro lost the election and urged the international community to intervene. “We have voted Mr. Maduro out,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.” Government repression over the years has pushed opposition leaders into exile.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.