People carry Venezuela’s national flag to protest the election results that awarded Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro with a third term, in Maracaibo, Venezuela July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Isaac Urrutia/File Photo
CARACAS, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab said on Monday that 413 more people arrested over election protests are to be freed, taking the total number of prisoners released to 1,369.
In recent weeks, Saab has announced a series of releases of groups of the more than 2,000 people who were arrested for taking part in protests after the July election.
Last November the U.S. government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the “president-elect” of the South American country , 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 percent 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 . “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.
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.
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.
Even Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, who has friendly relations with Maduro, reversed his support for the July elections, calling the vote a “mistake.”
Reuters/ AP