File: Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez gesture as they address supporters after election results awarded Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro with a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela July 30, 2024
CARACAS – Venezuela’s government accused the U.S. on Friday of being behind what it called a coup attempt, as some regional governments recognized the opposition candidate as the winner of the country’s disputed presidential election.
Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said Washington’s recognition of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez showed it was “at the forefront of a coup attempt.”
“Venezuela’s democracy is one of the most robust in the world, no effort to undermine it will be able to do so,” the government said in a statement shared by Gil.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Gonzalez as the winner, citing “overwhelming evidence”.
Gonzalez on Friday thanked the U.S. in a social media post “for recognizing the will of the Venezuelan people.”
A major Venezuelan opposition movement meanwhile said its headquarters in Caracas was vandalized overnight after six hooded men with guns overpowered its security guards, entered the office and took equipment.
“We denounce the attacks and insecurity to which we are subjected for political reasons,” the movement said on social media.
Tensions have escalated after the official electoral council declared President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, the winner of the July 28 vote.
At least 20 people have been killed in post-election protests, according to U.S.-based NGO Human Rights Watch.
At least 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the demonstrations, according to Maduro, who has said two out-of-commission prisons are being revamped to hold them.
Relatives of some of those arrested gathered outside police headquarters in Caracas on Thursday to call for their release.
GOVERNMENT URGED TO SHOW TALLIES
The president of Venezuela’s electoral council, Elvis Amoroso, said on Friday that nearly 97% of votes in last Sunday’s election have now been tallied and reaffirmed what he said was Maduro’s victory with just under 52%.
Amoroso did not provide detailed, ballot box-level voting tallies that governments around the world have called for to show Maduro’s victory.
Meanwhile, the electoral authority’s website has been down since Monday, and the government has blamed a cyber attack.
The opposition says its tally of a vast majority of the votes shows Gonzalez received more than double the support of the incumbent president, in line with independent polling conducted before the contest.
The opposition has published a public website with nearly 82% of the national tally down to ballot-box level.
Argentina’s foreign minister on Friday recognized Gonzalez as the president-elect, while Uruguay’s foreign minister said it was clear Gonzalez obtained the majority of votes.
Other governments in the region have taken a different tack.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday described Blinken’s recognition of Gonzalez as “an excess” and said Blinken was “overstepping his boundaries.”
Lopez Obrador made the comments a day after Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, whose leaders have traditionally been friendlier with Maduro, called on Venezuela’s government to “move ahead quickly” and publish detailed voting tallies.
“We need to talk with the (Venezuelan electoral council) itself (and) other actors and get a clearer idea of what happened, because the truth is that to this day we do not have a clear view because the voting tallies were not distributed as expected,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s top foreign policy advisor, Celso Amorim, told CNN Brazil on Friday.
In the interview, Amorim described the opposition’s voting tallies as “informal data”, without providing proof, and said some of it was “based on quick count mechanisms, exit polls.”
Amorim, who met with Maduro on Monday after being sent by Lula to observe the elections, said Brazil did not wish to interfere in Venezuelan affairs but sought “a conclusion that is most positive for the Venezuelan people.”
Opposition marches are expected in Venezuela on Saturday. Gonzalez and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who said in a opinion piece published on Thursday by the Wall Street Journal that she is in hiding, are expected to attend.
(Reuters)
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