The Cuban Foreign Ministry demands, in a strident tone, that the “majority support of the people” for Maduro be recognized
14ymedio, Rosa Pascual, Madrid, 1 August 2024 –On the third day, the United States changed its tone on Venezuela. The caution which the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, expressed after the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed the victory of Nicolás Maduro in the elections of Sunday, July 28, ended this Wednesday, when the White House woke up warning about being fed up waiting for the tally sheets of the vote after going to bed with the request to recognize the opposition’s victory.
“Our patience and that of the international community is running out. We are tired of waiting for the Venezuelan electoral authorities to be honest and publish the complete and detailed data of this election so that everyone can see the results,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby at a morning press conference.
It was the preamble to the expression of some harsher words by Brian Nichols, in charge of the Department of State for Latin America, before the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
“With the irrefutable evidence based on the voting records, which everyone can see, it is clear [that the opposition] defeated Nicolás Maduro by millions of votes,” said the diplomat. The senior official referred to the electoral tally sheets published by the opposition in which it is observed that, with 81% of the documents provided, between Edmundo González Urrutia and Nicolás Maduro there are almost four million votes in favor of the first.
“With the irrefutable evidence based on the tally sheets, which everyone can see, it is clear [that the opposition] defeated Nicolás Maduro by millions of votes
“This is not a projection, even if Maduro wins 100% of the votes in the less than 20% of the votes that remain to be published, he could not surpass González,” stressed Nichols, who urged both the Chavista candidate and the other countries “of the world” to recognize the opponent’s victory. “Those who do not do it are allowing Maduro and his representatives to carry out an attempt at massive fraud and disregard for the order of the law,” he added.
However, the OAS, despite everything, did not reach an optimistic conclusion. The member countries did not have the necessary consensus to approve a resolution that asked the Venezuelan authorities to publish “immediately” the tally sheets of the elections. Although there was no vote against, the absence of Mexico and several Caribbean countries, added to the abstention of 11 countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia, led to the fact that the votes necessary to approve the document in an extraordinary session of the Permanent Council were not obtained.
The representatives of the member countries negotiated the document for more than five hours, but it was impossible to agree on a wording that everyone could accept. The resolution requested only that a “comprehensive verification” of the results be carried out “in the presence of independent observer organizations to guarantee the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the results,” which had already been requested by “the relevant Venezuelan political actors.”
According to diplomatic sources, several countries that abstained asked to delete this last part, and others – such as Panama and Peru – opposed the deletion. Faced with that situation, unanimity was impossible.
Colombia’s abstention generated a wave of internal criticism from former Colombian presidents and politicians, who accused the Government o