Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

U.S. says Maduro lost Venezuelan election, calls for talks, transition

"OMOLIVES, Why would you be not sure..."

Related: The authoritarian playbook doesn't change, whatever color the flag you wave.
P - There's no difference between the Maduro and Orban regimes, and it's pretty much the administration
Trump envisions as well. Get power, consolidate power and don't relinquish power.
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Maduro claims that he won the vote Sunday, despite exit polling and, the opposition says, the government’s
own records, which indicate that Edmundo González won twice as many as votes.


Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition candidate Edmundo González hold
electoral records as they address supporters in Caracas on Tuesday.
(Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

By Samantha Schmidt and Matthew Hay Brown
August 1, 2024 at 8:58 p.m. EDT

CARACAS — The United States on Thursday said opposition candidate Edmundo González defeated President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela’s presidential election and called for negotiations to ensure a peaceful transition of power.

Maduro claims that he won Sunday’s vote. The opposition, meanwhile, says that the government’s own records, as well as independent exit polls, indicate that González won twice as many as votes.

“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Thursday evening.

In his statement, Blinken did not say the United States was recognizing González as Venezuela’s president.

“We congratulate Edmundo González Urrutia on his successful campaign,” Blinken said. “Now is the time for the Venezuelan parties to begin discussions on a respectful, peaceful transition in accordance with Venezuelan electoral law and the wishes of the Venezuelan people.”

Biden administration officials this week attempted to reach out to the Venezuelan government, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the private talks. Blinken’s announcement is likely to upset the Maduro government, the person said, and could halt the conversations.

Protesters in Venezuela and governments around the world have demanded Maduro publish precinct-level voting data to prove his election council’s claim that he won the election. At least 16 people have been killed in clashes across the country since Sunday, according to the rights group Foro Penal, a survey of hospitals and the defense ministry.

Maduro is the handpicked successor of Hugo Chávez, who founded Venezuela’s socialist state a quarter century ago. The authoritarian has ruled the South American country for more than a decade.

More than 7 million Venezuelans — a quarter of the population — have fled the
country in the past decade amid a collapsing economy and growing repression.

Samantha Schmidt is The Washington Post's Bogotá bureau chief, covering all of Spanish-speaking South America. Twitter

Matthew Hay Brown works with Washington Post journalists in Mexico City, Bogotá, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Toronto and Miami covering Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean. He joined The Post in 2019 from USA Today, where he was a national enterprise editor. Matt teaches in the journalism graduate program at Harvard Extension School. Twitter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/01/venezuela-election-maduro-us/