Nine Latin American Countries Call For A Review Of Results In Venezuela

Nine Latin American countries today called for a ‘complete review’ of the election results in Venezuela, following Nicolás Maduro's disputed victory on Sunday.

Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay issued a statement today in which they ‘demand a complete review of the results with the presence of independent electoral observers’, as well as a meeting on the issue under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS).

 

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that outgoing President Nicolás Maduro had been re-elected for a third consecutive term with 51.20 per cent of the vote, ahead of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who won just under 4.5 million votes (44.2 per cent).

‘Our governments will request an urgent meeting to issue a resolution that safeguards the will of the people, within the framework of the Democratic Charter and the fundamental principles of democracy in our region,’ said the nine countries in their communiqué, in which they expressed “deep concern” at the development of the presidential elections in Venezuela.

The activation of the OAS Democratic Charter, approved in Lima in 2001, represents a ‘collective guarantee mechanism to preserve democratic institutions and the legitimate exercise of power’.

For practical purposes, it allows the OAS, always with the prior consent of the affected government, to organize visits and carry out other procedures to analyze the situation, according to the document itself.

Meanwhile, the United States announced today that it will postpone making decisions on Venezuela, including the possibility of imposing new sanctions, until all voting records from the elections are published.

The government of President Joe Biden has acknowledged "serious concerns that the results announced do not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people," according to the words of the White House Homeland Security spokesman, John Kirby.

The spokesman argued that it is "absolutely essential that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials share the information immediately with the opposition and independent observers, and that election authorities publish complete and detailed results of the votes."

Also, during an official visit to Tokyo, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “grave concern” about the validity of the results announced and questioned whether they reflected the will of the voters.

Meanwhile, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said today that he would recognize Maduro’s victory if the Venezuelan National Electoral Council “confirms the trend” after the elections.

“We will wait for the results, once the count has been completed, see what the legal process is and then we will make a statement... if the electoral authority confirms this trend, we will recognize the government elected by the people of Venezuela,” López Obrador declared in his morning press conference.

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), ideologically close to the Venezuelan regime, came out in defense of the “undeniable triumph of President Nicolás Maduro Moros in Sunday’s presidential elections.”

"Venezuela has demonstrated its loyalty and commitment to 21st century Bolivarian socialism, a historic project full of social justice, established and practiced equality and immense popular consciousness," he added.