Eight days after the highly contested presidential elections in Venezuela, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has again insisted on Monday on the need for the authorities to publicly release the official records of the recount. Chavismo continues to turn a deaf ear to the clamorous demand. Lula considers this step essential for the elections to have legitimacy and to neutralize possible external interference. “Respect for popular sovereignty is what moves us to defend the transparency of the results.” [en Venezuela]”We are in a position to be the leader of the Chilean government,” Lula said on Monday to his Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric, at the Palacio de la Moneda in Santiago. The Brazilian took advantage of the state visit to personally present to Boric the efforts he is making with the Colombian Gustavo Petro and the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador to achieve a negotiated solution to the crisis triggered by suspicions that the Chavistas committed fraud.
During his appearance with Boric, Lula also stressed the trio of presidents’ call for “dialogue and to promote understanding between the government and the opposition.” The Brazilian president is maintaining pressure on Nicolás Maduro to have the National Electoral Council (CNE) release official documentation. A position that the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, the vetoed candidate María Corina Machado, praised in an interview with the Brazilian channel Globo: “I appreciate the clear position of the Brazilian government and of President Lula, when he demanded that the voting records of the National Electoral Council be released one by one and that they be subjected to an independent verification that gives confidence to all parties.” Machado was referring to the content of a joint statement by the presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia in which they ask for an impartial verification and ask for restraint from those involved.
The United States is in close contact with the three Latin American countries in search of a solution, a State Department spokesperson said. Asked if the White House was prepared to recognize an interim president, like Juan Guaidó in 2019, he replied: “That is not a step we are going to take today.”
There are numerous diplomatic moves to settle a crisis that could have serious consequences inside and outside Venezuela. Venezuelan politics also warns that, “if Maduro decides to remain [en el poder] “By force, what is coming is a process of destabilization with enormous and terrible consequences… and a process of massive migration that affects and destabilizes the region.” The possibility of a new exodus is causing enormous concern in neighboring countries, such as Brazil, which has reinforced border surveillance. Machado has also thanked European governments for their “commitment to democracy” in Venezuela.
This Monday, Lula spoke with Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, who, along with Spanish President Pedro Sánchez and the leaders of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal, announced that he does not recognise Maduro as the winner and is urging him to present the minutes. Close allies of Maduro, such as former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, have also joined this demand.
For his part, President Boric, who from the outset maintained that the results were “hard to believe,” thanked Lula for his desire to “build a left and a progressivism that is democratic and that always, at all events, respects and enforces respect for human rights.” Meanwhile, 30 former Latin American and Spanish presidents, mostly right-wing, have signed an open letter in which they call on Lula to “make democracy prevail in Venezuela.” Among the signatories are the Argentine Mauricio Macri, the Mexican Felipe Calderón, the Colombian Álvaro Uribe and the Spanish José María Aznar.
The Lula government maintains open channels of communication with both Chavismo and the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, who is considered the legitimate winner of the elections by his supporters, the United States and several other countries.
This Monday, the governments of Brazil and Venezuela formalized the agreement by which the former assumes consular affairs and custody of the embassies of Argentina, where six collaborators of the opposition Machado are taking refuge, and Peru after Chavismo expelled diplomats from both countries and others, including Chile, accusing them of electoral fraud.
Boric was one of the first international leaders to demand transparency and for an external observer to verify the results. In retaliation, Chavismo expelled the Chilean candidate. The leftist leader insisted: “We do not recognize Maduro’s proclaimed victory and we will not validate any result that is not verified by independent international organizations.”
Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren acknowledged in an interview with Morning Express that Brazil, Colombia and Mexico did not invite Chile to join their joint efforts, but stressed that they are in contact with them. “I think that the three countries assessed that incorporating Chile could make the mediation effort with the Maduro government more difficult. Basically, because we were one of the first countries to question the election results at a global level. And that generated great tension with the Maduro government.”
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