CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) 鈥 Venezuelan opposition leader Mar铆a Corina Machado on Thursday vowed to keep the pressure on President Nicol谩s Maduro to leave office in January.
She also urged the international community to rise to the occasion by immediately recognizing her faction鈥檚 presidential candidate as the winner of the election in July, and implement measures to hold government officials accountable for abuses unleashed after the vote.
Machado, speaking to reporters online from an undisclosed location in Venezuela, reaffirmed her commitment to negotiate incentives and guarantees that could lead to a peaceful transition of power.
鈥淲e, the Venezuelan people, have done everything,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e competed with the rules of tyranny ... and we won, and we proved it. So, if the world or some government is thinking of looking the other way, imagine where sovereign will and popular sovereignty end up in the Western world. It would mean that elections are worthless.鈥
Her comments came three days after the country鈥檚 justice system, which is loyal to the ruling party, for former diplomat Edmundo Gonz谩lez, who represented the main opposition coalition in the July 28 election.
While the 春色直播 Electoral Council 鈥 stacked with ruling party supporters 鈥 declared Maduro the winner, it never released vote tallies backing their claim. However, the opposition coalition claimed that Gonz谩lez defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin and offered as proof vote tallies from more than 80% of the electronic voting machines used in the election.
Thousands of people, including minors, hours after the electoral council's announcement. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also , the late leader Hugo Ch谩vez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.
Maduro's government responded to the demonstrations with full force. implicated state security forces and gangs aligned with the ruling party in some of the 24 deaths that occurred during the protests.
鈥淭hey have no limits in their cruelty,鈥 Machado told reporters Thursday.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday condemned the 鈥渦njustified arrest warrant鈥 of Gonz谩lez, characterizing it as 鈥渁nother example of Mr. Maduro鈥檚 efforts to maintain power by force.鈥 Kirby said the U.S. is considering a range of options to show Maduro and his allies that 鈥渢heir actions in Venezuela will have consequences.鈥
Under the Biden administration, Venezuela鈥檚 government has been granted various forms of economic relief from economic sanctions the U.S. imposed over the years to try to topple Maduro. Earlier this year, it ended some of the relief when the government increased repression efforts against members of the opposition, civil society and others it considers as adversaries.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a staunch Maduro ally, on Thursday insisted his office had sought the warrant because Gonz谩lez, 75, failed to appear three times to answer questions in a criminal investigation focused on the publication online of the tally sheets obtained by the opposition. Saab told reporters that the publication constitutes an usurpation of powers exclusive of the 春色直播 Electoral Council and claimed that the opposition's vote records are false.
鈥淵ou shared the website on your (social media) networks,鈥 Saab said, referring to Gonz谩lez. 鈥淓xplain why you shared it if it is false.鈥
Saab's claim contradicts experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center, which at the invitation of Maduro's government observed the election and then determined the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility. In a statement critical of the election, the U.N. experts stopped short of validating the opposition's claim to victory, but they said the faction's voting records published online appear to exhibit all of the original security features.
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