MADRID, Spain.- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Edmundo González Urrutia won the majority of votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election. In a statement issued this Thursday Blinken stressed that this claim is supported by overwhelming evidence presented by the democratic opposition and independent observers.
The statement details that the democratic opposition has published more than 80% of the voting records received directly from polling stations across the country. According to these records, Gonzalez Urrutia won the majority of the vote by an insurmountable margin. Independent observers, exit polls and quick counts conducted on election day corroborate this conclusion. Blinken emphasized that, after consultations with partners and allies globally, no country has concluded that Nicolás Maduro won the majority of the vote.
The Secretary of State called the processing of votes and the announcement of results “deeply flawed,” claiming that the announced result does not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people. He recalled that the National Electoral Council (CNE) The CNE is controlled by the Chavista regime and highlighted that the CNE proclaimed Maduro as the winner without providing any supporting evidence. To date, the CNE has not published disaggregated data or voting records, despite numerous requests from both Venezuelans and the international community to do so.
The observation mission of the Carter Center He also reported on irregularities in the process, which have undermined the credibility of the result announced by the CNE, Blinken recalled, referring to the statement published on Tuesday by the leading election observation organization, which explained that the electoral process did not conform to “international parameters and standards for electoral processes.”
The organization stressed that it was unable to verify the results declared by the CNE due to the “lack of transparency in the publication of results broken down by polling station,” which it considers a “serious violation of electoral principles.”
In the August 1 statement, Blinken also rejected Nicolás Maduro’s baseless accusations against opposition leaders, calling them an anti-democratic attempt to repress political participation and maintain power. He expressed concern about threats of arrest against opposition leaders, including Edmundo González and Maria Corina Machadoand stressed the need to protect the safety of leaders and members of the democratic opposition.
Finally, the Secretary of State congratulated Edmundo González Urrutia for his successful campaign and called on Venezuelan parties to begin discussions on a respectful and peaceful transition, in line with Venezuelan electoral law and the wishes of the Venezuelan people. The United States, Blinken concluded, is ready to support the process of restoring democratic norms in Venezuela, in collaboration with international partners.
On Monday, July 29, when it became known that Venezuela’s National Electoral Council had declared Maduro the country’s “president” for six more years, Antony Blinken was among the first to denounce electoral fraud. That day, declared that the United States had “serious concerns” about the election results and considered that they “did not reflect the votes of the people.”
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