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MIAMI (AP) — The Organization of American States failed to reach a consensus Wednesday to demand that Venezuelan authorities “immediately” publish and verify election results declaring Nicolás Maduro the winner, days after the group was criticized for a lack of transparency by international organizations and leaders in the region, such as their allies Gustavo Petro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The resolution urged Venezuela’s electoral authorities to “immediately publish the results of the vote” and “conduct a full verification of the results” in the presence of independent international observers “in order to guarantee the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the election results.”
But after more than five hours of long debate behind closed doors, representatives of OAS member states failed to reach a consensus and were forced to vote at the OAS Permanent Council. There, they had to get an absolute majority, but they did not get the 18 votes needed for approval. They were one short.
“The resolution did not pass,” said Ronald Michael Sanders, president of the council and Antigua and Barbuda’s representative to the OAS.
The move came a day after OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro urged Nicolas Maduro to acknowledge his defeat in the presidential election or hold new ones, as pressure appeared to grow among Latin American countries.
Sanders said the consensus could not be reached in one sentence, but he did not clarify what the consensus was.
The leaders of Brazil and Colombia, who in recent days had called for transparency from electoral authorities, abstained from the vote. Mexico had already expected it would not attend.
A total of 17 members of the OAS Permanent Council voted in favor, 11 abstained and five were absent, including Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela itself and Mexico. No one voted against.
Bolivia and Honduras also abstained from the vote. Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and the United States voted in favor of the resolution.
Foreign pressure intensified on Monday after the National Electoral Council (CNE) formally declared Maduro the president-elect for a third six-year term after results showed he had won the election with 51 percent of the vote. Opposition candidate Edmundo González had 44 percent.
Thousands of opponents took to the streets of Venezuela to protest the outcome.
The opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado González, insists it won the election by a large margin and is demanding that authorities release the electoral records.
Governments representing a broad political spectrum from left to right have joined the demand, including Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and the European Union, among others.
The meeting was held at the OAS headquarters in Washington and was convened by a dozen countries: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
The resolution also calls for “absolute priority to guarantee fundamental human rights in Venezuela,” primarily the right to peacefully demonstrate without reprisals, and stresses the “importance of protecting and preserving all equipment used in the electoral process, including minutes and printed results.”
“We regret that no resolution could be adopted on this issue and we do not understand why there is no agreement on these fundamental issues,” said Washington Abdallah, the Uruguayan representative.
“This institution should walk away today feeling very ashamed,” he said after the vote.
In the morning, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena would not attend the meeting. “We will not participate because we do not agree with the one-sided approach of the OAS,” he said at the daily morning meeting.
A day earlier, the office of OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro issued a statement saying that “it is necessary to see if Maduro accepts the minutes of the opposition meeting and thus his electoral defeat.” If not, he said, “new elections will be needed with international observers from the European Union and the OAS and new electoral authorities” to “reduce the institutional irregularities that have plagued the process.”
Venezuela decided to unilaterally withdraw from the OAS years ago, but Almagro and the organization’s permanent council have discussed the country’s situation several times on the grounds that it contributes to democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
Almagro has been very critical of Venezuela, as well as other countries such as Nicaragua and Cuba.
Honduras has questioned the OAS process and noted that the OAS has no responsibility to resolve the situation in Venezuela because it is not a member of the organization.
“You can’t be impartial when you listen to both sides of a conflict,” said Roberto Quesada, a Honduran delegate who also questioned Almagro’s statement the day before, saying it did not represent the position of all OAS members.
Maduro’s government did not allow the Organization of American States to send an observer delegation to witness the election. Only a handful of foreign experts were authorized: a small delegation from the United Nations and another from the Carter Center, a U.S. nongovernmental organization promoting democracy.
The Carter Center said it was unable to verify Venezuela’s disputed election results, citing a “lack of transparency” by the electoral body in disseminating the results.
After Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Uruguay criticized the lack of transparency in the electoral process, the Venezuelan government ordered all diplomatic staff in those countries to return and asked them to do the same in Venezuela.
The Argentine government has expressed concern about the situation of six members of Machado’s and Gonzalez’s teams who have taken refuge at the Argentine embassy in Caracas. Argentina is one of seven countries in the region that Venezuela has given 72 hours to evacuate its diplomatic headquarters.
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Journalist María Verza contributed to this article from Mexico City. Calatrava reported from Buenos Aires.
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