Caracas Venezuela — US President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday called on Venezuela’s government to release detailed voting data from the presidential election.
The electoral authorities have said President Nicolas Maduro won, but the opposition says its candidate, Edmundo González, got more than twice as many votes in Sunday’s election.
In a joint statement after a call discussing Venezuela’s election, Biden and Maduro ally Lula said they “agreed on the need for Venezuelan electoral authorities to immediately release complete, transparent voting data.” and detailed at the electoral college level.
Both presidents said the result “represents a critical moment for democracy in the hemisphere.”
Criticism of Maduro has increased since electoral authorities declared him the winner Monday.
Thousands of fervent opposition supporters gathered outside the United Nations offices in the capital, Caracas, to commemorate what they said was an electoral victory for the opposition candidate. Edmundo González. Meanwhile, Maduro’s allies appeared on television to accuse opposition leaders of being fascists.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado, standing on top of a truck in Caracas, he called the National Electoral Councilloyal to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, to free the scrutiny records produced by each electoral district after the polls close, asking: “Why don’t you publish them?”
Machado said that the opposition coalition behind González’s candidacy has obtained more than 84% of the votes and that he is confident that he has been elected in Sunday’s elections to be president of Venezuela.
“The only thing we are willing to negotiate is a peaceful transition,” Machado said as the crowd chanted, “We are not afraid!”
Machado and González urged their followers, thousands of whom protested across the country on Monday, to remain calm and avoid violence.
“And remember this figure, when the minutes are counted, this server will have more than 8 million votes,” said González, flanked by his wife and Machado, who has been disqualified from running for political office for 15 years. “We are going to begin the reconstruction of Venezuela.”
Its celebration occurred hours after the Organization of American States criticized the National Electoral Council for not publishing the results at the district level.
“The worst form of repression, the most vile, is to prevent the people from finding solutions through elections,” the organization said in a statement. “The obligation of each institution in Venezuela must be to guarantee freedom, justice and transparency in the electoral process.”
The organization, which has called an urgent meeting of its members to discuss Venezuela’s elections He even suggested that a new vote could be held to resolve the very different results presented by the electoral authorities and the opposition. A repeat, the organization said, would require robust international observation.
In Washington, the National Security Council said the United States continues to monitor Venezuela after the election and urged authorities to publish “complete, transparent and detailed election results.”
“There are clear signs that the election results announced by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council do not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
Maduro’s closest allies came to his defense on Tuesday. The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, who is also Maduro’s main negotiator in talks with the US government and the opposition coalition, insisted that Maduro was the undisputed winner and described the opposition as violent fascists.
“Never! They will never come to power!” Rodríguez said before applauding the legislators.
Diosdado Cabello, a legislator and leader of the ruling party, later said: “We are going to screw them because these people do not deserve to shed even one more drop of blood for fascism.”
Venezuela has the the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, and once had the most advanced economy in Latin America. But it went into free fall after Maduro took command in 2013. Falling oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that exceeded 130,000% caused social unrest and mass emigration.
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in recent Latin American history.
Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets across the country on Monday to protest. The protests in Caracas were mostly peaceful, but when dozens of riot police blocked the protesters, a fight broke out. Police used tear gas and some protesters threw rocks and other objects at officers. A man fired a gun as protesters moved through the city’s financial district, but no one was injured.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Tuesday that more than 700 protesters were detained, one officer was killed and 48 military and police officers were injured. Some of those arrested will be charged with terrorism, he said.
Among those arrested was opposition leader Freddy Superlano, who was filmed by a passerby on Tuesday as armed individuals forced him and two other men into a van. Superlano and one of the men threw what appeared to be his cell phones, which were then picked up by the people arresting them.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk expressed alarm over the post-election climate in Venezuela.
“Hundreds of people have been arrested, including children. This concerns me deeply,” she said in a statement. “I am alarmed by reports of the disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials along with violence by armed individuals supporting the Government.”
Long lines began to form outside supermarkets and other stores in Caracas selling food and essential supplies on Tuesday, in apparent anticipation of a prolonged period of demonstrations that could lead to food shortages.
The chose It was one of the most peaceful in recent times, reflecting hopes that Venezuela can avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule. The winner would take control of an economy recovering from collapse and a population desperate for change.
In the port city of La Guaira, people knocked down a statue of Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez, dragged him to the street and set him on fire during Monday’s protests. Maduro inaugurated the statue in 2017 and on Tuesday all that remained was its base, littered with twisted rebar and broken cement.
“I hold you responsible, Mr. González Urrutia, for everything that is happening in Venezuela, for the criminal violence, for the criminals, for the injured, for the dead, for the destruction,” Maduro said Tuesday during a televised meeting of the Council. of National Defense. “You will be directly responsible, Mr. González Urrutia, and you, Mrs. Machado, and justice must come, in Venezuela there must be justice because these things cannot happen again.”
Machado told reporters that electoral college recount records show that Maduro received more than 2.7 million votes, while González obtained approximately 6.2 million. Meanwhile, the electoral council reported that Maduro and González obtained around 5.1 million and more than 4.4 million votes respectively.
More than 9 million people voted on Sunday, according to figures published by the president of the National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso.
It is estimated that the number of eligible voters for these elections is around 17 million. Another 4 million Venezuelans are registered to vote, but they live abroad and many did not meet the requirements to register to cast votes abroad.
While Machado and González were on top of the truck, their followers began chanting “President! President!”
“This meeting smells like triumph,” González told them.
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Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in La Guaira, Venezuela and Nancy Benac in Washington, DC contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
