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The European Union insisted on Saturday that Venezuela’s National Electoral Council must publish the minutes of its July 28 presidential election and subject them to independent verification to ensure the will of the Venezuelan people is respected.
Josep Borrell, the Eurogroup’s top representative, declared in a statement that Venezuelan authorities have so far “not provided the necessary public evidence” to assess the election results in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolas Maduro the winner.
Maduro received 6.4 million votes, according to electoral bodies, while his rival Edmundo González received 5.3 million votes, while the opposition claimed it had collected records from more than 80% of 30,000 electronic voting machines showing their candidate had won.
The EU has therefore joined international pressure to demand transparency in the process and to reject the Supreme Court’s statement, which on Thursday certified the CNE’s results in favor of Maduro, who requested an expert opinion. International organizations question the independence of a court composed of officials close to the regime.
In the letter, Borrell mentioned that “only complete and independently verifiable results will be accepted and recognized” to ensure respect for the will of the Venezuelan people.
The left-wing governments of Colombia and Brazil, which have close ties with Venezuela, issued a joint statement, saying they are “firmly convinced that the credibility of the electoral process can be restored only through the transparent publication of classified and verifiable data”. The joint statement pointed out that both countries have made diplomatic mediation efforts and their position is to make the process transparent, which is why they reiterated their willingness to “promote” understanding between the two sides.
María Corina Machado, González’s main promoter and leader of the opposition, insisted on the international recognition of what she considered to be a huge victory for González and urged the government to recognize these results, as she indicated on Saturday in a message posted on the social network X.
Venezuela’s government has denied Borrell’s claims and called his actions “interventionist.” The Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the EU’s “continued disrespect” for the country’s sovereignty could “severely affect diplomatic, political and economic relations.”
In response to Borrell’s argument that González “appears to be the winner” by a “vast majority” based on public minutes of meetings released by the opposition, the Venezuelan government said the documents were “forged.”
Finally, he asked the EU not to comment on internal affairs.
The day before, Latin American countries and the United States flatly rejected the ruling of the Venezuelan Supreme Court and demanded a fair audit.
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States also protested, saying that “recognizing the results of the CNE as valid according to the TSJ ruling is a confirmation of electoral fraud.”
Even Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, one of Maduro’s biggest allies in the region, said his government would wait for the CNE to release the election records to decide whether to recognize the Venezuelan president as the winner.
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