US declares opposition candidate winner of Venezuela’s disputed election

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The US has declared Venezuela opposition candidate Edmundo González the winner of the July 28 presidential election, describing the official results favouring President Nicolás Maduro as “deeply flawed”.

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said on Thursday that “given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and . . . to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes” and congratulated him on his “successful campaign”.

Washington’s statement steps up the pressure on Maduro, who has launched a crackdown on nationwide protests this week against his disputed re-election.

The government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) said early on Monday that Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, had won 51.2 per cent of the vote to González’s 44.2 per cent. But the CNE provided no supporting evidence, and has not responded to international pressure to do so.

The elections department of the Organization of American States has said the Venezuelan result cannot be recognised because of the lack of evidence. Maduro has referred the election dispute to the supreme court, which is controlled by the government.

The Carter Center, a US non-profit and the only independent body in Venezuela to evaluate the election, withdrew its team on Tuesday without certifying the result, which it said “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any of its stages”.

The opposition, which ran a nationwide monitoring mission of its own, declared González the victor and president-elect with 7.1mn votes, compared with 3.2mn for Maduro, publishing 80 per cent of the voting receipts collected at polling stations as evidence.

Blinken also called for the immediate release of all those arrested who were protesting against the result and said the safety and security of González, a 74-year-old former diplomat, and opposition leader María Corina Machado must be protected. Maduro and members of his inner circle said in speeches this week that the pair should be jailed.

Washington’s top diplomat said the threats represented an “undemocratic attempt to repress political participation and retain power”. Authorities in Venezuela arrested more than 1,000 people in connection with protests this week, while rights groups have said that at least 17 demonstrators were killed.

Maduro referred to González in speeches this week as “Guaidó 2.0”, a reference to Juan Guaidó, the opposition lawmaker who Washington and dozens of other western capitals recognised as Venezuela’s legitimate president after a 2018 election widely considered a sham. That effort to unseat Maduro ultimately failed, and Guaidó fled Venezuela in April last year.

Earlier on Thursday, leftwing governments in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico published a joint statement calling “on the electoral authorities of Venezuela to move forward expeditiously and make public the data broken down by voting table”, but stopped short of condemning Maduro.

Machado, who had been banned from contesting the poll, has called for nationwide protests on Saturday in defence of González’s victory. “The country needs us to be strong, organised, and mobilised,” she wrote on X.