Venezuela Crisis | Opposition Rejects Calls from Other Countries for New Elections

(Caracas) Brazil and Colombia called on Thursday for a new presidential election in Venezuela in order to get the country out of the crisis born of the contested re-election at the end of July of Nicolas Maduro, a proposal immediately rejected by the opposition, which claims victory.

Judging the opposition’s victory to be “very clear”, the White House corrected its position after Joe Biden’s apparent support for new elections.

The American president “mentioned the absurd position of (President) Maduro” who is “not honest” about the result of the presidential election, assured a spokesperson for the White House.

Mr. Biden had answered “I am” to the question: “Are you in favor of new elections in Venezuela?” during a short exchange with the press.

If Mr Maduro “has any sense, he could try to appeal to the people of Venezuela, maybe even call and schedule” another election, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told local radio.

His Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro called in a message posted on X for a new “free” election. He also suggested, among a list of proposals, the “lifting of all economic sanctions” that affect the country.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador avoided “giving his opinion” on holding new elections, but criticized the United States and Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “Who is this man to say who won and who lost?”

The National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified President Maduro’s victory with 52% of the vote in early August, without providing the exact count and the minutes of the polling stations, claiming to have been the victim of computer hacking.

According to the opposition, which made public the minutes obtained through its scrutineers, its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the election with 67% of the vote, a result rejected by Mr Maduro.

The announcement of the latter’s re-election to a third term provoked spontaneous demonstrations, with a toll of 25 dead, 192 injured and 2,400 arrests, according to official sources.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado immediately rejected calls for a new presidential election. “To propose ignoring what happened on July 28 is, for me, a lack of respect for Venezuelans.” […]”, popular sovereignty is respected,” she told Chilean and Argentine media.

The election “took place and Venezuelan society expressed itself in very unfavorable conditions. There was fraud and we still managed to win,” she added.

The same story was echoed by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who reaffirmed on X that he had won the election “by an overwhelming majority.” “We reiterate our commitment to democracy, peace and Venezuela,” he added.

“Domino game”

Mr. Maduro had already ruled out any new elections, proclaiming three days after his contested re-election: “I won the domino game and I ask to start again? It’s like if we were playing dominoes, I won and I ask to start again, please! No, you’ve already won, have a beer,” he had joked during a press conference.

For its part, parliament voted on Thursday on the law regulating NGOs and associations, the first in a series that the opposition considers to be liberticidal.

Among the points of the text, the obligation for NGOs to notify their “funding” and “donors, national or foreign”, or the prohibition of “receiving financial contributions intended for organizations with political aims”.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, had called on Caracas not to “adopt these laws and any other laws that undermine the civic and democratic space in the country.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had ruled that the law “arbitrarily restricts the right of association and freedom of expression.”

Two other texts, on “incitement to fascism and hatred” and on regulation of social networks, must be examined by the unicameral parliament where the government has 256 of the 277 seats after the opposition boycotted the 2020 legislative elections.