Mexico City.- The governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico insisted on Thursday on the need for the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela to release the electoral records of the disputed presidential elections that declared Nicolás Maduro the winner, according to information published by the news agency Agence France-Presse.
Although the countries said they took note of the process in the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), to which Maduro appeals to certify his victory, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico “start from the premise that the CNE is the body that is legally responsible for the transparent disclosure of the election results,” according to a joint statement.
The pro-government CNE declared Maduro the winner with 52 percent of the votes, although it did not publish the details of the vote count, claiming that its system had been hacked.
Amid allegations of fraud by the opposition, Maduro went to the Supreme Court last week, accused of serving Chavez’s supporters, to ask it to “certify” the election through a process that academics and political leaders consider inappropriate.
Opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who considers himself the winner of the elections, twice defied the Supreme Court’s summons, arguing that it would violate “due process” and put “the will of the people” “at risk.”
Protests erupted across the country following the results of the July 28 election, leaving at least 24 people dead, according to human rights organizations.
The opposition published on a website copies of more than 80 percent of the minutes that they claim prove their victory. Chavismo dismisses the validity of these documents.
Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, which are seeking to mediate a solution to the crisis in Venezuela, have not mentioned any concrete progress in their ongoing talks.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado warned the Mexican government on Thursday that an unprecedented “wave of migration” of Venezuelans would be unleashed if Maduro clings to power.
Colombia, Brazil and Mexico “reiterate their call to the country’s political and social actors to exercise maximum caution and moderation in demonstrations and public events and to the country’s security forces to ensure the full exercise of this democratic right within the limits of the law,” they said in the statement.
With information from AFP.
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