MONTEVIDEO.- Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, USA, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay rejected the decision of the court of Venezuela to “validate” a questioned electoral victory of Nicholas Ripeaccording to a joint statement released in Quito.
“We categorically reject the announcement by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela, which indicated that it had concluded an alleged verification of the results of the electoral process of July 28, issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE), and which seeks to validate the unsupported results issued by the electoral body,” the eleven countries said.
They added that “they had already expressed their ignorance of the validity of the CNE’s declaration, after opposition representatives were denied access to the official count, the non-publication of the minutes and the subsequent refusal to carry out an impartial and independent audit of all of them.”
The United States, meanwhile, believes that “now is the time” for the parties to “begin discussions on a respectful and peaceful transition” in Venezuela, the State Department said on Friday.
“Continued attempts to fraudulently claim victory for (Nicolás) Maduro will only exacerbate the current crisis,” it added in a statement.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Maduro’s re-election, calling the ruling “forceful” amid allegations of fraud and the “judicialization” of the opposition’s elections.
The opposition claims to have won the elections and accuses both the TSJ and the CNE of serving Chavismo.
“We express our deep concern and rejection of the human rights violations perpetrated against citizens who peacefully demand respect for the citizen’s vote and the restoration of democracy,” the eleven nations of the Americas stated.
They noted that the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela “warned about the lack of independence and impartiality of both institutions, the CNE and the TSJ.”
The TSJ did not provide technical details of the report, such as the size of the sample analyzed.
Mexico awaits the minutes
Mexico will wait for the voting records in Venezuela to be published before recognizing the re-election of Nicolás Maduro, said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“We will wait for the results to be released,” said President López Obrador at his morning press conference, when he was asked whether his government recognizes Maduro’s alleged victory.
Maduro’s re-election for a third consecutive term was proclaimed by the National Electoral Council on July 29 and ratified on Thursday by the Venezuelan Supreme Court, but the opposition denounces it as a “fraud” and claims the victory of its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
Asked by reporters, López Obrador said he had not had any communication with Maduro since the election and had only spoken about the issue with his Colombian counterparts, Gustavo Petro, and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula.
The Mexican president’s stance regarding the post-electoral crisis in Venezuela has been to wait to see the results of the vote count and to reject any intervention in the internal affairs of that country, despite the human rights violations of the regime that has imprisoned more than 2,000 people in the context of electoral fraud.
