US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken discussed this Monday with the Colombian Foreign Minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, the urgency for the American region to apply even more pressure, now “with one voice” so that Venezuela “returns to a democratic path.”
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According to Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesman for the Secretariat of State, this pressure should not exclude the participation of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The head of US diplomacy held a telephone call with Murillo, whom he thanked for Colombia’s efforts aimed at facilitating a dialogue in view of “the return of democracy in Venezuela,” according to Patel.
They discussed the need for Venezuelan electoral authorities to “publish transparent results at the polling station level” on the presidential elections of July 28, in which, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), the current president of that country, Nicolás Maduro, was re-elected for a third consecutive term.
This result is rejected by the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the largest opposition bloc in Venezuela, which insists on the victory of its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, and this has unleashed multiple protests that have resulted in 25 deaths and more than 2,400 arrests, according to official figures.
Blinken and Murillo addressed in this regard the urgency for the security forces of the South American country to “refrain from violating human rights.” and the freedom of expression of Venezuelans.”
The CNE, which claims to have suffered a cyber attack on election day, has yet to publish disaggregated results confirming Maduro’s victory – contrary to its own rules – a silence that has been questioned by numerous countries.
For its part, the anti-Chavez alliance published on a website – investigated by the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office – 83.5% of the electoral records that confirm, according to the coalition, that González Urrutia won by a wide margin.
This Monday, besides, The UN Fact-Finding Mission in Venezuela demanded that the Venezuelan authorities “immediately stop the repression and ‘investigate thoroughly “the avalanche of serious human rights violations that are occurring,” the organization said in a statement.
Mission President Marta Valiñas said the allegations “must be investigated and that if abuse of force by security forces or pro-government armed civilians is confirmed, there must be accountability.”
Opposition leader María Corina Machado, for her part, said on Monday in an interview with Efe that she is convinced that Edmundo González Urrutia will be sworn in as the new head of state on January 10, 2025, when the new government period begins.
The former Liberal MP reiterated that the candidate of the PUD won the elections “in an overwhelming manner”, whose official result has been rejected by numerous countries, while the Carter Center, which participated as an observer in the contest, pointed out that the electoral process “cannot be considered democratic.”
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