Venezuela opposition wants candidate recognized as president-elect

Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia (C), greets supporters on the campaign trail – Copyright AFP/File Federico PARRA

Javier TOVAR

Venezuela’s opposition chief Maria Corina Machado on Thursday called on the world to recognize candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as president-elect after a disputed election in the oil-rich nation.

President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in the July 28 vote but many in the international community have refused to recognize that result.

However, they have also stopped short of accepting Gonzalez Urrutia as the president-elect, instead calling for Caracas to publish detailed polling results.

“The world knows Edmundo Gonzalez is the president-elect and Maduro was defeated by a landslide,” Machado said during a virtual appearance.

“I think it’s certainly come to a point in which we need to move ahead… and this is a moment in which Edmundo Gonzalez should be recognized as president-elect of Venezuela.”

The United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries have refused to recognize Maduro’s claimed victory without seeing detailed voting results.

Venezuela’s electoral authority has said it cannot provide a full breakdown of results, claiming a cyber attack on its systems. Observers have said there is no evidence of hacking during the election.

“They are not going to do it because the results would prove that we win,” said Machado.

– A failed precedent –

After Venezuela’s last election, in 2018, Maduro was proclaimed winner amid widespread accusations of fraud. 

Eventually, the United States and many other countries recognized the then-speaker of parliament, Juan Guaido, as acting president. 

During this time the US stepped up sanctions against Venezuela, including an oil embargo.

However, Guaido never had any real power. The opposition dissolved its “interim government” in 2022 and the once wildly popular young politician faded from public life.

Washington has said it is weighing “a range of options” against Maduro and his allies.

Maduro has led the oil-rich but cash-poor country since 2013, presiding over a GDP drop of 80 percent that pushed more than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.

Ahead of the election, Machado was polling as the most popular politician in the country before she was banned from the race by courts loyal to Maduro.

A little-known former diplomat, Gonzalez-Urrutia stood in for her at the last minute.

When Maduro’s victory was announced, spontaneous protests erupted from citizens complaining their vote had been stolen, leaving 25 civilians and two soldiers dead, and some 2,400 in jail.

Maduro blames the opposition for the violence and has said Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia both belong behind bars.

Human Rights Watch slammed “shockingly brutal” repression at the hands of security forces.

“Maduro feels that he can kill people, make people disappear, detain people without anything happening,” said Machado.

“He has to be held accountable for the crimes he has committed, and he has to understand that the world will not just look the other way.”

– Arrest warrant –

Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez Urrutia over his insistence that he is the rightful winner of the election, charging him with usurpation of public functions, forgery of a public document, incitement to disobedience, sabotage, and association with organized crime.

On Wednesday, he appealed through his lawyer, Jose Vicente Haro, for Venezuela’s attorney general “not to prosecute acts that are not of a criminal nature, not to initiate political persecution.”

Gonzalez Urrutia has been in hiding for a month, and Haro explained he had ignored three successive summons to appear before prosecutors because he was in a position of “defenselessness.”