After President Nicolas Maduro was declared elected for the third time in Venezuela, the countries of the Americas were divided over the results.
While Latin American countries led by Argentina and Chile officially claimed that Maduro had ‘stolen the election’, countries such as Cuba and Nicaragua were quick to congratulate the Venezuelan leader on his victory.
This is not surprising, since it is no secret that Argentine leader Javier Milei has been speaking out against Maduro and Bolivarian Venezuela for months, as has the Cuban leadership’s support for Maduro.
What is surprising is that three countries known for their ‘left’ governments have still not recognised Maduro’s victory: Lula’s Brazil, Obrador’s Mexico and Petro’s Colombia.
Three countries are preparing a statement on the ‘lack of transparency’ of the elections
According to Bloomberg, Brazil is in talks with Mexico and Colombia to issue a joint statement demanding that Venezuela count all the votes and publish the results from each electoral district.
The foreign ministries of the three countries, led by leftist presidents with historically close ties to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, refused on Monday to recognise the outcome of Sunday’s election until Caracas takes steps to ensure the transparency of the process.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is unhappy with the situation in Venezuela and believes that Maduro ‘systematically failed to fulfil his promises of transparency’ during the electoral process, officials told Bloomberg.
To underline its dissatisfaction, Brazil’s foreign ministry instructed the country’s ambassador in Caracas not to attend Monday’s ceremony organised by Venezuela’s electoral authority to certify the results.
Brazil and Colombia have been criticising the ‘election’ for months
Lula said last week that Maduro should learn that ‘when you lose an election, you have to go away and prepare for another one’.
Lula also warned that Venezuela’s economic future ‘depends on a clean election, recognised as legitimate by the international community’.
In March, Colombia and Brazil took the unusual step of criticising Venezuela after some members of the Venezuelan opposition said they had been prevented from registering as candidates for the 28 July elections.
In a statement at the time, Colombia’s foreign ministry warned the Maduro government that preventing opposition candidates from taking part in the vote could ‘undermine the confidence of the international community’.
Brazil’s foreign ministry also said it was following the process ‘with concern’, especially as Venezuela had yet to issue a statement on the blocking.
Both countries argued that the opposition’s problems had raised ‘concerns about free and fair elections.
In separate statements, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil accused Colombia and Brazil of interfering in his country’s internal affairs.
Opposition: We have proof we defeated Maduro
Venezuela’s opposition says it has proof that rival Edmundo González defeated Maduro in the presidential election.
González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told reporters on Monday that they had received more than 70 per cent of the vote tallies, which show that González received more than 6 million votes, compared with more than 2 million for Maduro.
González and Machado made their claims hours after Venezuela’s Maduro-controlled electoral council announced that the president had won the election with 51 per cent of the vote to González’s 44 per cent.
According to the opposition, the results did not include vote counts from individual polling stations, which election observers said were crucial to determining the accuracy of the vote count.
Opposition also takes to the streets
The announcement of Maduro’s victory just after midnight on Monday sparked angry protests in the capital Caracas and across Venezuela, with people banging pots and pans throughout the night and into the late morning.
Demonstrators clashed with police, who fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. At least one person was killed in the northern province of Yaracuy, according to Voice of America.
Machado called on opposition supporters to organise demonstrations in Caracas on Tuesday.
US ‘concerned’, Biden to meet Lula
We have serious concerns that the announced result does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,’ said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
On the other hand, the Biden administration said on Monday that ‘electoral manipulation’ had destroyed ‘any credibility’ of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s claim of re-election victory, leaving the door open to new sanctions against the country, Reuters reported.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said senior aides to President Joe Biden had demanded that Maduro release a detailed breakdown of the vote and that failure to do so would make the international community reluctant to accept the announced result.
The officials did not announce any new “punitive measures” but said Washington would review its sanctions policy against Caracas based on Maduro’s future actions.
“We may be facing a new scenario. We will take that into account as we look at where we can go with sanctions against Venezuela,” one official said.
They argued that the Maduro government had resorted to ‘repression and electoral manipulation’ and said that ‘any credibility of the so-called election results has been destroyed’.
A senior US official said the administration was in contact with Brazil and other Latin American governments about the political situation in Venezuela.
Biden will meet with Brazilian President Lula on Tuesday afternoon, the White House said in a statement.
EU officials meet to discuss Venezuela election
European diplomats will discuss Maduro’s victory in Venezuela’s presidential election today (30 July).
The Council of Europe’s working group on Latin America and the Caribbean will meet at 10.00 Brussels time.
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, wrote in a message on X: ‘The Venezuelan people voted peacefully and in large numbers for the future of their country. Their will must be respected,’ he said.
Borrell added that it was vital to ensure ‘full transparency in the electoral process’, including a detailed vote count and access to voting records at polling stations.
Simon Stano, spokesman for the EU’s diplomatic service, said: ‘We are assessing the election process and results in close contact with national, regional and international actors on the ground. However, we are concerned by allegations of flaws and shortcomings,’ said Simon Stano, spokesperson for the EU diplomatic service.
Elon Musk calls Maduro a ‘dictator’, Maduro responds
Following the presidential election in Venezuela, which saw Maduro and his allies triumph, X owner Elon Musk took to social media to accuse the Venezuelan leader of committing ‘massive electoral fraud’.
Shame on dictator Maduro,” Musk said on Monday.
Musk also retweeted a comment on X from Argentine President Javier Milei, whom he described as his ‘friend’. ‘The numbers have declared the victory of an overwhelming opposition and the world expects the government to concede defeat after years of socialism, misery, collapse and death,’ Milei had said.
Maduro responded by calling Musk ‘the arch-enemy of peace in Venezuela’.
Arguing that Elon Musk was ‘the representative of a fascist ideology, unnatural, anti-society’, Maduro said: ‘Elon Musk is desperate; control yourself. Whoever fights with me will dry up,” he replied, ‘You want to fight? Let’s do it. Elon Musk, I am ready. I’m not afraid of you, Elon Musk. Let’s fight wherever you want,” Maduro said, accusing Musk of wanting to “come with his rockets and his army and invade Venezuela’.
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