US declares Maduro rival Gon­za­lez win­ner of Venezue­lan pres­i­den­tial elec­tion

Sec­re­tary of State Antony Blinken announced Thurs­day that the U.S. gov­ern­ment is rec­og­niz­ing Edmun­do Gon­za­lez as the win­ner of Venezuela‘s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion over incum­bent Nico­las Maduro.
In a state­ment on the U.S. government’s posi­tion on the Latin Amer­i­can country’s pres­i­den­tial results, Blinken said Venzueala’s Nation­al Elec­toral Coun­cil deci­sion to declare Maduro the vic­tor on Sun­day was wrong.

Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro ges­tures dur­ing a news con­fer­ence at Miraflo­res pres­i­den­tial palace in Cara­cas, Venezuela, Wednes­day, July 31, 2024, three days after his dis­put­ed reelec­tion. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

“The CNE’s rapid dec­la­ra­tion of Nico­las Maduro as the win­ner of the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion came with no sup­port­ing evi­dence. The CNE still has not pub­lished dis­ag­gre­gat­ed data or any of the vote tal­ly sheets, despite repeat­ed calls from Venezue­lans and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to do so,” Blinken not­ed. 

Elec­toral data over­whelm­ing­ly demon­strate the will of the Venezue­lan peo­ple: demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­si­tion can­di­date @EdmundoGU won the most votes in Sunday’s elec­tion. Venezue­lans have v …