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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said today Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro could hold new elections with international observers as a potential solution to the country’s political crisis.
Lula also said a “unity government” could be another possible solution for Venezuela after the disputed July 28 presidential election, which both Maduro and the opposition claimed to have won.
“If Maduro had any common sense, he could take the issue to the people, perhaps set up a nonpartisan electoral commission and hold new elections,” Lula said in a radio interview.
Brazil’s president said he still did not recognize Maduro as the winner of the election and demanded that his government release the still-unanimous vote results.
“Maduro knows he owes Brazil and the world an explanation,” Lula said.
Brazil joins neighboring Colombia in seeking a solution to the Venezuelan crisis. Lula spoke by phone with Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday, but did not disclose details of the call.
Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lula’s top foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim said Brazil had not formally proposed new elections in Venezuela.
“Let us find a democratic, electoral, peaceful solution in Venezuela,” Amorim said.
Conservative senators attending the hearing criticized Lula’s government for taking a soft stance toward Maduro and asked what Brazil had done for the jailed opposition leader.
Amorim said Brazil was willing to send a plane to pick up six Maduro opponents seeking asylum at the Argentine embassy, which has flown the Brazilian flag since Venezuela severed ties with Argentina.
Venezuela’s electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner of July’s election with 51% of the vote, but have yet to release the results.
The opposition said its own detailed vote count showed Gonzalez likely won with 67 percent of the vote, a margin of victory of nearly 4 million votes, and it uploaded scans of local voting tallies to its website.
More than two weeks after Maduro was declared re-elected, the United States and other Western countries have shown no signs of taking swift, tough action against what they decry as electoral fraud.
Both the Venezuelan government and opposition representatives have previously ruled out the idea of holding new elections.
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