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BOGOTA (APRO) – The governments of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia today urged Venezuela’s electoral authorities to quickly publish disaggregated data from polling stations in last Sunday’s election and allow for an “impartial verification” of the results.
Venezuela’s ruling National Electoral Council (CNE) awarded victory to President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday without a full vote count and without releasing a record of results from every polling station, while data sheets collected by witnesses and several exit polls gave opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia a sweeping victory.
In a joint statement, the governments of Presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia), which have friendly relations with Maduro, affirmed that the dispute over Venezuela’s electoral process must be resolved through institutional means.
“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through a fair verification of the results,” they said in a note following a phone call this afternoon.
Without mentioning Maduro, the three left-wing leaders – all of whom came to power through democratic elections with fair referees – confirmed that they are closely following the vote counting process in Venezuela.
The CNE, chaired by Chavista Elvis Amoroso, a politician close to Maduro, has not published records of voting tabulations for four days, and the agency’s website portal was paralyzed by a hacker attack.
Nevertheless, last Monday, hours after the election, without making the data public and without waiting for the challenge period prescribed by law, the CNE declared Maduro elected president from 2025 to 2031, which would be the third consecutive term of office for a challenged president.
Although extremely cautious, the statements by López Obrador, Lula and Petro are significant because they are three left-wing politicians from influential countries in the region, two of which are Venezuela’s neighbors Brazil and Colombia.
Furthermore, all three could play a role, jointly or individually, as facilitators of eventual political negotiations with the opposition.
Maduro has expressed displeasure with comments from Petro and Lula, who have called for transparency in the results and respect for the will of the people, but he has remained in contact with them by phone.
López Obrador, Petro and Lula said in a joint statement they were willing to “support dialogue efforts and seek an agreement that benefits the Venezuelan people.”
The United States, through Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols, recognized the victory of opponent González Urrutia at a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday.
“He got millions more votes than Nicolas Maduro,” Nichols said.
The European Union (EU) requires “impartial verification of the electoral record” as the only way to accept the election results.
On Tuesday, the Carter Center, which monitors Venezuela’s elections, noted that the election “cannot be considered democratic” because it did not meet international parameters and standards for electoral integrity.
Observers from the NGO, which has supported Chavismo’s electoral victories in the past, said in a report that it was impossible for them to “verify or confirm the authenticity of the results announced by the CNE” and that the fact that the electoral authorities did not publish the tabulated results was a serious violation of electoral principles.
The opposition said it had copies of 84% of the electoral records, which support González Urrutia’s victory by 30 percentage points over Maduro and more than 8 million votes.
Several “exit” surveys from independent firms confirm these data.
Last Monday, Maduro ordered a crackdown on spontaneous protests across the country against alleged electoral fraud. The president’s security forces killed at least 11 protesters, shot dozens more and detained more than 200.
López Obrador, Lula and Petro called on Venezuelan political and social actors to “exercise maximum caution and restraint in demonstrations and public events to avoid an escalation of violence.”
Maintaining social peace and protecting people’s lives must be the current priority, they added.
Maria Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition party disqualified by the regime as a presidential candidate and supporting González Urrutia, called for peaceful demonstrations this Saturday in all the cities of the country.
The regime threatened to arrest her and opposition candidates.
At the same time, more and more versions claim that the CNE team under Maduro’s control is preparing forged voting records as “evidence” of Chavez’s victory.
Maduro said on Wednesday they had 100% of the minutes, but they did not submit them until Thursday evening.
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