Protests against President Nicolás Maduro flared across Venezuela Saturday as opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia thanked the US for acknowledging his win in last week’s elections.
The US joined Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru in rejecting the official election results, which purportedly declared Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, the winner.
“We thank the United States for recognizing the will of the Venezuelan people reflected in our electoral victory and for supporting the process of restoring democratic norms in Venezuela,” González Urrutia wrote on X.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado holds her hand up with opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in Caracas on July 29, a day after the Venezuelan presidential election.
González Urrutia and Maduro both claimed victory in the July 28 vote.
The Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council’s vote tally determined the incumbent nabbed 51% of the vote at the July 28 election, but the US found no evidence supporting the claim.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed to be the winner of the July 28 election. MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday those results were “deeply flawed” and not representative of the “will of the Venezuelan people,” in a statement released by the State Department.
Indeed, the US found “overwhelming evidence” that González “won the most votes in the election by an insurmountable margin,” Blinken said.
The opposition claims it has tally sheets from the polls that show González received roughly 6.2 million votes to Maduro’s 2.7 million.
Demonstrators protested against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s question about presidential victory in front of UN headquarters in New York City on Friday. AFP via Getty Images
The election controversy has sparked protests and violence in Venezuela since Monday, and thousands again took to the streets Saturday in cities across Venezuela and neighbouring Colombia.
Supporters also demonstrated in Miami and Tampa, Florida and in front of the White House in Washington, DC.
Washington is considering fresh sanctions on Venezuela following the disputed election results.
