[ad_1]
BOGOTA (APRO) – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on Tuesday the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to demand that Nicolás Maduro accept his defeat in the July 28 elections and negotiate an orderly transfer of power to the winning candidate of these elections, Edmundo González Urrutia.
During a virtual press conference with Mexican media, Machado insisted that the Mexican government bears a “huge responsibility” in the post-election crisis Venezuela is experiencing, as the ruling National Electoral Council (CNE) handed Maduro the victory without disclosing the minutes of the electoral meetings held at the electoral stations.
The opposition leader, who was disqualified by the regime as a presidential candidate and supported González Urrutia, noted that the López Obrador government is in dialogue with Maduro, which is why it is necessary to let him know that “the best thing is to negotiate.” The starting point is to recognize his defeat in the elections and ask him to stop the repression he has unleashed against Venezuelans who demand his resignation.
Machado also asked Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute (INE) to verify a database in which the opposition has records of 83.5% of the vote tabulations from the July 28 elections, confirming what many institutions, universities and NGOs around the Mexican world have already done, that Maduro lost those elections.
“Here is the proof of our victory, there are the minutes,” he noted, saying they gave González Urrutia 67 percent of the vote and Maduro 30 percent.
The main leader of the Venezuelan opposition said that even if Maduro received 100% of the votes (16.5%) in the minutes that the opposition still needs to review, he would not get close to González Urrutia.
He noted that INE could “confirm this with its own eyes.”
Machado also called on Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum to listen to the women of Venezuela and understand their power and belief in fighting a regime that wants to steal the election.
The leader insisted that while she was in communication with representatives of the Brazilian and Colombian governments, the same was not happening with the Mexican government.
“We cannot communicate with the Mexican government, but we are open to their mediation,” he assured.
Last week, the governments of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia issued a joint statement urging Venezuelan electoral authorities to quickly release disaggregated data from the July 28 election vote tabulations and allow for an “impartial verification” of the results.
The governments of Presidents López Obrador (Mexico), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia), all of whom are left-leaning and have good relations with Maduro, have said the dispute over Venezuela’s electoral process should be resolved through institutional means.
“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through an impartial verification of the results,” they said in the note.
Machado insisted on the importance of these three countries for Maduro to see the need to negotiate a peaceful transition, although he warned that the starting point was to recognize their defeat and González Urrutia’s victory.
[ad_2]
Source link
