▲ Corina Machado and candidate Edmundo González (right) claim that 70 percent of the votes were in favor of their political party. The image, at the post-election protest on Tuesday.Photo Ap

AP, Sputnik, Página/12, Reuters and Xinhua

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 2, 2024, p. 24

Caracas. The United States government yesterday recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González as the winner of the Venezuelan elections, in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) gave the victory to President Nicolás Maduro, a decision rejected by the opposition, which alleged fraud without presenting evidence.

In response, Maduro demanded that the United States stick out their noses from Venezuela. The United States comes out to say that Venezuela has another president. The United States should get its nose out of Venezuela, because the sovereign people are the ones who rule in Venezuela, the ones who put in place, the ones who elect.said.

Hours earlier, the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of the Bolivarian Republic called on all candidates from the last presidential elections to appear today and begin a process of check votes, by agreeing to carry out the expert appraisal of the contest requested by Maduro, who in turn showed himself open to dialogue with Washington on the post-electoral crisis, although he asked him to put aside his imperialist attitude.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that given the overwhelming evidence, It is clear to the United States and, more importantly, to the Venezuelan people, that Edmundo González obtained the majority of votes in the presidential elections of July 28.

The CNE announced after midnight on Sunday that Maduro, nominated by the Gran Polo Patriótico, won with 51.2 percent of the votes and González, of the Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD), had 44.2 percentage points, with 80 percent of the votes counted.

María Corina Machado, who could not be a candidate because she was disqualified and appointed González in her place, assured that her candidate won with 70 percent, without providing evidence, although Blinken maintained that has published more than 80 percent of the minutes received directly from voting centers throughout Venezuela.

Condemning the recent arrest of anti-Chavez activists – 1,062, according to the Venezuelan government – ​​Blinken noted that The United States rejects Maduro’s baseless accusations against opposition leaders. The threats by the president and his representatives to arrest opposition leaders, including Edmundo González and María Corina Machado, are an undemocratic attempt to stifle political participation and retain power..

Backing the Carter Center report, which questioned the electoral process, the head of US diplomacy said: As reported by the independent Carter Center observation mission, the fact that the CNE has not provided official results at the district level, as well as reporting irregularities throughout the process, have stripped all credibility from the result announced by the CNE.Blinken’s full statement in https://rb.gy/853p8h.

Before the announcement of President Joe Biden’s government was known, Maduro confirmed his willingness to resume dialogue with the United States, but made it conditional on compliance with the agreements signed in Qatar in 2023.

The TSJ called on all candidates from the last presidential elections to appear today and begin a process of check of votes, as requested by Maduro. The investigation and verification process is admitted, advocated and initiated to certify in an unrestricted manner the results of the electoral process carried out on July 28, 2024announced the president of that organization, Caryslia Rodríguez at the headquarters of the TSJ.

According to the official, today at 2 p.m. Nicolás Maduro, Edmundo González, Luis Martínez, José Brito, Javier Bertucci, Antonio Ecarri, Daniel Ceballos, Benjamín Rausseo and Enrique Márquez must appear in their capacity as candidates in the presidential election process.

In response to opposition claims and pressure from several countries and international organizations alleging a lack of transparency in the results, Maduro requested an appeal for protection before the TSJ the day before, so that the organization can rule on the attack on the electoral process and after considering that seeks to promote a coup d’état in Venezuela driven by the United States and the drug dealer Colombian, as well as the magnate Elon Musk.

The PUD ignored the results and Machad proclaimed President elect to Gonzalez.

Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay refused to recognize Maduro’s re-election, whose new term begins on January 10; in response, Caracas expelled the diplomatic personnel of those nations.

Other countries, including Brazil and Spain, avoided categorical statements, but insisted on the verification of the election results. table by table.

The Carter Center, which Blinken referred to, noted that the electoral process It developed in an environment of restricted freedoms and that the electoral authorities They showed bias in favor of the ruling party and against the opposition candidates. Maduro replied that the Carter Center’s conclusions cannot be considered democratic and stated that this report was already written since a month agoHe said the Carter Center is now controlled by the US government, unlike when it was run by former President Jimmy Carter.

Machado published an article in The Wall Street Journal in which he stated: I am writing this from hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom and that of my fellow countrymen in the dictatorship led by Nicolás Maduro..

Machado and González made their last public appearance on Tuesday at a protest in Caracas.

In this context, Presidents Javier Milei and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva put aside their ideological differences that have distanced them and agreed that the Argentine embassy in Caracas will remain under the custody of Brazil, including the protection of the six Venezuelan opposition members who have taken refuge.