President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said, this Thursday (15), that he still does not recognize the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, as the winner in the elections held on July 28 in the country. “Not yet. He [Maduro] He knows that he owes an explanation to Brazilian society and to the world,” said Lula when asked if he recognized the result of the election.
The National Electoral Council of Venezuela declared Maduro reelected with 51.21% of the votes. The main opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained 44.2% of the votes. The opposition and several nations question the legitimacy of the victory and demand transparency in the process, including Brazil, with the disclosure of minutes of each of the more than 30 thousand electoral sections.
“The ballot boxes in Venezuela, when you vote on an electronic machine like here, have a ticket; that ticket is placed in a ballot box. So, you have the electronic vote and you have the ballot box. What we want is for the National Council that handled the elections to publicly say who won the elections, because until now no one has said who won,” said Lula in an interview with Rádio T, in Curitiba, Paraná.
Electoral records in possession of parties supporting the Venezuelan government were delivered to the country’s Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ). The campaign of candidate Edmundo González also published election minutes on the internet that are in the possession of the parties that support him, which indicate a victory for González.
“You have to present the data, now the data has to be presented by something that is reliable. The National Electoral Council, which has people from the opposition, could be, but it [Maduro] did not send [as suas atas] for the council, he sent it to the Justice, to his Supreme Court”, said Lula, stating that he cannot judge the actions of the Supreme Court of another country.
The Brazilian president advocated establishing a coalition government in the neighboring country, with the participation of the opposition, or calling new elections. Maduro will remain in office until January 10, 2025, the date set for the winner of the election to take up the new mandate.
“Many people who are in my government did not vote for me and I brought everyone to participate in the government,” said Lula, recalling the coalition of parties that supported his election in 2022. “If he [Maduro] If he has common sense, he could try to make an appeal to the people of Venezuela, perhaps even call for new elections, establish a criterion for the participation of all candidates, create a supra-partisan electoral committee in which everyone participates and let scouts from all over the world come in to watch the elections,” he added.
Yesterday (14), Lula and the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, talked about the political impasse in Venezuela. The two countries are trying to mediate to try to resolve the crisis that has already led to arrest more than 2 thousand opponents of Nicolás Maduro.
“I don’t want to behave in a passionate and rash way,'[dizer] I’m either for so-and-so or against him. No, I want the result. [factível]”, he said. “What I cannot do is be hasty and make a decision. In the same way that I want Brazil to be respected, I want to respect the sovereignty of other countries,” the president added.
Lula has not yet spoken to Maduro after the electoral process in Venezuela. He and the Venezuelan president they talked last timeby telephone, in June, and, before that, in person, during the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in Kingstown, capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
“I spoke personally with Maduro before the elections, saying that the transparency of his electoral process and the legitimacy of the result were what would allow us to continue fighting for the suspension of sanctions against Venezuela,” Lula recalled.
Since August 2017, Venezuela has faced an international economic blockade that limits access to the global credit market and, since January 2019, also to the oil and other minerals market.
