Caracas (Venezuela): The US government has recognised Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the South American country's presidential election, discrediting the results announced by electoral authorities who declared President Nicols Maduro the victor.
Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday.
The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of Sunday's highly anticipated election, but the president's main challenger, Gonzalez, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have said they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed.
They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Maduro lost. The announcement from the US government came amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release vote tallies from the election and increasing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials from Brazil and Mexico.
Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with Maduro's administration to convince him that he must show the vote tally sheets from Sunday's election and allow impartial verification, a Brazilian government official said.
The officials have told Venezuela's government that showing the data is the only way to dispel any doubt in the results, said the Brazilian official, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to publicly speak about the diplomatic efforts.
A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, confirmed that the three governments have been discussing the issue with Venezuela but did not provide details.
