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Brazil and Colombia have proposed that Venezuela hold new presidential elections to end the crisis that erupted aVsceker Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner without providing evidence of the polls.
The authoritarian socialist’s claim to have won re-election, unrecognized by the United States, the European Union and most Latin American nations, was followed by a deadly crackdown on protesters in the days aVsceker the vote.
However, the proposal to re-vote was rejected by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. The opposition claims that its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a margin of more than two to one and has posted thousands of voting receipts online.
“The elections have already happened,” Machado said at a news conference Thursday. “If [Maduro] he doesn’t like the results, shall we do a third?”
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, controlled by Maduro’s allies, has not released a detailed breakdown of results since it declared Maduro the winner last month.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday that he had not yet accepted Maduro’s supposed victory, saying he “has not yet… [Maduro] he knows that he owes an explanation to Brazilian society and to the world.”
He repeated a call for the publication of voting data, but also suggested in a radio interview that there might be other ways out of the impasse, including new elections: “You can form a coalition government, call the opposition. Many people who are in my government did not vote for me.”
Colombia’s leVscekist president Gustavo Petro has called for new elections, a transitional coalition government, national and international amnesties and “the liVsceking of all sanctions against Venezuela.”
“An internal political agreement in Venezuela is the best path to peace,” he wrote on X.
Reporters at the White House on Thursday also asked U.S. President Joe Biden if he supported new elections in Venezuela, to which he replied, “Yes,” without providing further details.
A National Security Council spokesperson later clarified that Biden was “talking about the absurdity of Maduro and his representatives not providing clarity on the July 28 elections.”
“The United States calls again for the will of the Venezuelan people to be respected and for discussions to begin on a transition to democratic norms,” the spokesperson added.
Brasilia and Bogota, whose presidents have historically been supportive of Venezuela’s leVscekist government, are pushing for greater transparency from Caracas as they seek to promote mediation between Maduro and the opposition. The approach contrasts with stronger condemnations from many Western nations.
Mexico had initially been involved in the initiative, but its leVscekist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this week that he would not take part in the talks for now.
“I interpret the interest of these countries as stability, but keep in mind that stability does not mean a democratic transition,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The dark side of all this is that, in theory, stability could be brought about by repression. A country could be stable, but only stably repressed.”
In power since 2013, Maduro has overseen the collapse of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy, increased repression and the exodus of nearly a quarter of the country’s population. He has painted the unrest as part of a “fascist” and “counterrevolutionary” U.S.-led coup attempt, backed by billionaire Elon Musk and Western social media companies.
The United States congratulated González for obtaining the most votes, although it failed to recognize him as president-elect.
Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Uruguay also recognized González’s victory, while Maduro’s allies in Cuba, Russia, Iran and China were quick to congratulate him on his re-election.
A group of 20 former U.S. officials and diplomats signed an open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, calling on the Biden administration to take a more assertive stance toward Maduro.
“The diplomatic efforts of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico are notable, but there is no substitute for U.S. leadership mobilizing like-minded democratic governments to pressure the regime to respect those election results and agree to a timely transition of power,” the group wrote.
Read more from Christine Murray in Mexico City and Lauren Fedor in Washington
