Washington.- The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved a resolution on Friday calling on the government of Nicolás Maduro to publish the results of the disputed July 28 elections in Venezuela.
The text was adopted by consensus of the 26 delegations of member countries that attended the extraordinary meeting held at the OAS headquarters in Washington.
The document calls on the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) to “promptly publish the minutes with the results of the presidential election vote at each polling station level” and allow “an impartial verification of the results.”
Expressing concern over “reports of serious irregularities and violence related to the electoral process,” the resolution calls on Maduro’s government to respect “the right to assemble peacefully” without reprisals, “not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest or imprisonment” and to have a “fair trial.”
The text, presented by the United States to the OAS, had been co-sponsored by Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Suriname and Uruguay. Mexico did not attend the meeting.
The international community has been demanding the publication of the electoral records since the CNE declared Maduro’s victory over the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, on the same night of the elections.
The United States claims, as does the Venezuelan opposition, that González Urrutia was the one who won the presidential election.
The electoral crisis led to protests in which 25 people were killed and more than 2,400 arrested.
The OAS Permanent Council had already met on July 31 to study a resolution calling for transparency from Maduro’s government. The text was then rejected after failing to obtain the majority of votes from the 34 member countries.
Shortly before the meeting of the American organization, the European Union and 22 countries signed a joint declaration requesting an “impartial verification” of the results of the Venezuelan elections.
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