González Urrutia thanks U.S. for endorsing Blinken — MercoPress

González Urrutia thanks US for endorsing Blinken

Maria Corina Machado is in hiding because she fears for her life

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia on Friday thanked U.S. President Joseph Biden’s administration for recognizing him as president-elect, even though the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Caracas awarded victory to incumbent Nicolas Maduro.

“We are grateful to the United States for recognizing the will of the Venezuelan people as reflected in our electoral victory and for supporting the process of restoring democratic norms in Venezuela,” González Urrutia wrote on X, following a statement from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Washington had concluded that González Urrutia was the winner based on “overwhelming evidence.”

“There is overwhelming evidence, and it is clear to the United States and especially to the Venezuelan people, that Edmundo González Urrutia won a majority of the votes in Venezuela’s presidential election on July 28,” Blinken said.

Meanwhile, disenfranchised opposition leader María Corina Machado, who supported González Urrutia’s candidacy despite her ban, announced that she was in hiding in fear for her life after masked assailants attacked the Vente Argentina party building in Caracas. Machado expressed her stance in an article in the Wall Street Journal.

“I write this from hiding, fearing that my life, my freedom and the lives and freedoms of my compatriots are at risk under the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro,” Machado wrote in the article, titled “I Can Prove Maduro Is Defeated.”

“Mr. Maduro did not win Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday. He lost by a huge majority to Edmundo González, 67% of the vote to 30%. I know this to be true because I can prove it. I have receipts directly from over 80% of the voting centers across the country,” she said, stressing that the Maduro regime is intensifying its campaign of repression, arresting more than 1,000 people, killing around a dozen, and renovating maximum security prisons to hold those whom Maduro has labeled “terrorists” and “criminals.”

Maduro’s victory was contested by many countries, which have demanded minutes of every vote.

Machado also wrote: “For years, we have known the regime’s tactics and we are well aware that the National Electoral Council is completely under the regime’s control. It is unthinkable that Maduro would admit defeat.”

In addition, on Friday, the National Electoral Council issued a new bulletin confirming that Maduro won with 51.95% of the votes, while González Urrutia received 43.18%, with 96.87% of the votes counted so far. Congressman Luis Eduardo Martínez came in third with 1.24%.