One day after Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) ratifies President Nicolás Maduro’s victoryin the July 28 elections, a joint letter signed by the United States and 10 other Latin American countries rejected the decision of the court, which has the final say in judicial matters in the country. In addition to the Americans, the letter released this Friday (23) is signed by Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. 
“Our countries had already expressed their ignorance of the validity of the CNE’s declaration [Conselho Nacional Eleitoral]as soon as opposition representatives were prevented from accessing the official count, the non-publication of the minutes and the subsequent refusal to conduct an impartial and independent audit of all of them. The Independent International Mission to Determine Events in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela warned about the lack of independence and impartiality of both institutions, both the CNE and the TSJ. The undersigned countries reiterate that only an impartial and independent audit of the votes, which evaluates all the minutes, will ensure respect for the sovereign will of the people and democracy in Venezuela”, reads an excerpt from the joint letter.
International pressure
In another statement, US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel reinforced the challenge to the election result, which gave Maduro a third term that runs until 2031.
“Yesterday’s assessment [quinta-feira] “The Maduro-controlled Supreme Court’s assessment of Venezuelan election results is not credible. Publicly available and independently verified district-level vote tallies show that a majority of Venezuelan voters chose Edmundo Gonzalez,” he said.
To date, Venezuela’s official bodies, such as the CNE and the TSJ, have not yet presented the data by polling station. The opposition claims that it has the minutes that give the victory to the opposition candidate Edmundo González. Because of this, also on Friday, the country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation against those responsible for publishing the alleged opposition minutes on the internet, accusing them of document forgery, usurpation of powers of the Electoral Power and “conspiracy”. The Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, announced that he would subpoena, “in the next few hours”, former presidential candidate Edmundo González to give testimony.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, an ally of Edmundo González, celebrated the publication of the joint letter from the 11 countries of the continent and spoke about the isolation of the Maduro regime. “The democratic world aligns itself with the people of Venezuela and respects our Popular Sovereignty. At this point, no one buys the TSJ’s gross maneuver to hide the minutes that demonstrate Edmundo González’s landslide victory. Therefore, once again, the regime made a mistake: what the TSJ decided was its complicity with the CNE’s fraud. Far from “closing the case”, they accelerated the process that isolates and sinks Maduro even further each day. It was clear that they did not dare to act and publish the minutes!”, she stated.
Edmundo González also published an open letter, in which he declares himself the winner and asks that countries continue to put pressure on Venezuelan authorities. “I ask that the nations of the world remain firm in defending our democracy and continue demanding that state bodies be transparent in their actions and respect the election results. Peace is at stake in our country.”
So far, the Brazilian government has not yet commented on the decision of the Venezuelan Supreme Court. The expectation is that the position will be formalized in a joint statement with Colombia. The two countries have been working together to mediate a solution to the political crisis.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that his government will wait for the publication of the electoral records, with information broken down by polling station. “We will wait, because yesterday the Court upheld that President Maduro won the election, at the same time that it recommended that the records be made public. I believe there is a date for the resolution, so we will wait,” he said during his morning press conference on Friday in Mexico City.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) has once again criticized Maduro’s declaration of victory, confirmed by the Venezuelan Supreme Court. “This General Secretariat reiterates that the CNE proclaimed Maduro [reeleito] in a hasty manner, based on a partial bulletin issued orally, with numbers that demonstrated mathematical impossibilities.”
In Europe, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, reiterated the demand for the electoral records. “We need to prove this electoral result. So far we have not seen any proof and, until we see a verifiable result, we will not recognize it.” [a vitória]”.
Venezuela hits back
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, on behalf of the Bolivarian government, published an official statement “energetically” rejecting the joint letter from the 11 countries.
“Venezuela demands absolute respect for its sovereignty and independence, achievements after intense struggles against the most hostile empires that are determined to get their hands on natural resources that do not belong to them, and are trying to impose today, once again, a policy of regime change typical of the coups d’état that the US empire, for more than 100 years, has promoted in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the statement said.
According to the chancellor, the countries that contest the election results are complicit in the violence that has occurred in the country.
