United States Recognizes Edmundo González as Winner of Venezuelan Presidential Election

The U.S. government announced this Wednesday that it recognizes the opposition candidate of Venezuela, Edmundo González Urrutia, as the winner of the presidential elections. Brian Nichols, the U.S. Department of State's Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, stated at an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) that there is irrefutable evidence showing that Edmundo González defeated Nicolás Maduro by millions of votes, even though the electoral authority has yet to release the official results.

"The National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by Maduro, declared him the winner of the election without releasing any detailed data or polling station-level counts. The partial results announced by the CNE, which account for 80 percent of the vote, contradict pre-election polls, post-election surveys, and numerous recounts conducted by experts and observers," Nichols declared.

During his speech, Nichols criticized the lack of transparency, noting that despite days of requests for polling station-level results, the government has not released such data or evidence, even though the legal deadline for doing so has passed. "The answer seems clear: either they know that González is the winner and do not want to present the results, or they know that González won and Maduro needs time to prepare falsified documents to support his claim," the U.S. official pointed out.

Nichols further emphasized that Venezuelans were already aware that these elections did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and could not be considered democratic, rendering the CNE's announcement meaningless. "Maduro and his representatives must acknowledge Edmundo as the legitimate winner of the presidential elections, and the world must also recognize González's electoral victory. Those who do not will be facilitating Maduro's massive fraud attempt and his disregard for the rule of law and democratic principles," Nichols concluded.

White House Expresses Growing Frustration

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby stated during a press conference that both the United States and the international community are losing patience as they await the Venezuelan authorities to "come clean" and release the election results to verify the announced outcomes.

Kirby referred to a report by the Carter Center, which concluded that the Venezuelan elections lacked sufficient electoral integrity and did not meet international standards, thus "cannot be considered democratic." "I just want to reiterate that the United States joins other democracies in the region—and indeed around the world—in expressing serious concerns about these subversions of democratic norms. The Venezuelan people have taken to the streets to demand their votes be counted. They cannot be blamed for that," Kirby asserted.

Kirby also highlighted serious concerns within the U.S. government regarding reports of casualties, violence, and arrests, including warrants issued against opposition leaders. "We condemn political violence and repression of any kind," the spokesperson concluded.

Since Maduro's self-proclaimed victory, an increasing number of voices in the international community, including the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), and numerous Latin American countries, have urged the Maduro government to release the voting records to confirm the election results.

Protests against the Chavismo regime since late Sunday night have resulted in at least eleven deaths and more than 1,000 demonstrators detained so far.