Ambassador Celso Amorim, advisor to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) for international affairs, was directly provoked by the Venezuelan government after the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) confirmed Nicolás Maduro’s victory this Thursday (22) as a result of an alleged audit of the voting records without the participation of the opposition.
Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said “you heard me, Mr. Celso Amorim” when defending the country’s sovereignty against criticism from “the entire world” demanding the public release of the results to assess the recognition of the dictator’s victory.
“It is important to say that the TSJ ruling is not only in Venezuela, where the higher jurisdiction of the electoral court is located, but also in Brazil – you heard, Mr. Celso Amorim –, in Mexico, in the United States of America and throughout the world. There is a higher jurisdiction,” he said.
The specific mention of the three countries is due to the joint movement that pressured the Maduro regime to publicly release the results of the vote held at the end of July. Brazil and Mexico, together with Colombia, signed a joint letter pressuring the dictator to make the electoral system transparent.
The Brazilian government has not yet made an official statement about the Venezuelan court’s decision. The position, up until now, was to continue pressuring Maduro to present the documents, and Lula said he would not recognize the dictator’s victory without an audit of the documents.
In addition to Rodríguez, the president of the TSJ, Caryslia Rodriguez, reinforced his position when announcing the decision. The court also prohibited the release of the electoral records and considered the victory as “unappealable”.
The announcement comes 25 days after the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro’s victory, reportedly with 51.95% of the valid votes. The opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, had 43.1% according to the body.
No legitimacy
The legitimacy of the TSJ and the National Electoral Council (CNE), equivalent to the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE), was questioned by a mission from the UN Human Rights Council, which classified them as not independent and biased towards the Maduro government. The Venezuelan opposition, led by Edmundo González and María Corina Machado, does not recognize the result and claims that González was the true winner, based on a parallel count of the electoral records.
In addition to domestic criticism, the international community has also spoken out. International observers such as the Carter Center have stated that the Venezuelan elections did not meet international standards of integrity and therefore cannot be considered democratic.
In contrast, Brazil’s 2022 elections were validated by several international entities, including the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU).
The TSJ also considered that the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, could face sanctions for “contempt of justice” due to his absence in hearings called by the Judiciary after the election.
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