Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva does not recognize Nicolas Maduro as the winner of last month’s contested Venezuelan presidential election and has called on Venezuela to publish voting tallies that the country has so far failed to release.
“Maduro still has six months left in his term. He is the president regardless of the election. If he has good sense, he could call upon the people of Venezuela, perhaps even call for new elections, create an electoral committee and allow observers from around the world to monitor,” Lula said Thursday in an interview with Radio T.
Marian Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader, said she was against a new presidential election.
“The election already happened,” she said in video call with journalists from Argentina and Chile, Reuters reported. “Maduro must be made to know that the cost of his staying grows with each day that passes.”
While several Western nations regard the results of the Venezuelan election as vote fraud, none has taken any action against the oil-rich South American country.
“It is abundantly clear to the majority of the Venezuelan people, the United States and a growing number of countries that the CNE [Venezuela’s electoral council] has not provided full, detailed, tallied votes because they would show that Edmundo González Urrutia won the vote,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week.
Venezuela’s electoral authority said incumbent Maduro won 51% of the presidential election vote, while the opposition reported its tallies revealed its candidate, Gonzalez, was the victor.
“Maduro knows he owes Brazil and the world an explanation,” Lula said.
Meanwhile, Celso Amorim, Lula’s top foreign policy adviser, told a Brazilian Senate committee on Thursday that Brazil has not formally proposed that Venezuela stage a new election.
“Let’s find a solution that is democratic, electoral and peaceful in Venezuela,” he told the committee.
The Associated Press reported that it had reviewed Venezuela’s released tally sheets, and results from 79% of the voting machines indicated that Gonzalez “won significantly more votes that the government has claimed.”
Brazil’s Lula spoke by phone with Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday about their neighbor’s political troubles, but the presidents have not shared any details about the content of their conversation. Both presidents, whose countries share a border with Venezuela, have urged Maduro to find a solution to Venezuela’s political crisis.
Earlier this week, the United Nations expressed concern about Venezuela’s tense political climate following the presidential election.
The U.N. reported that, according to official statements, more than 2,000 people have been arrested in Venezuela since the election. U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said that the number of arbitrary detentions was continuing to rise, along with a “disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
