By Ociel Alí López on August 2, 2024
Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks with his counterparts from Brazil and Mexico on Aug 1, photo: Juan Diego Cano
Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have become key players in curbing lawsuits, sanctions and offensives against Venezuela as tensions simmer after the July 28 elections.
“The scrutiny is the end of any electoral process, it must be transparent and ensure peace and democracy,” said Petro to reaffirm his commitment to institutionality in Venezuela and try not to repeat the interference proposals.
Petro is confident that the solution lies in the hands of Venezuela and not in third countries. In response to the appreciation made by opposition leader María Corina Machado to the pronouncement of the Colombian Foreign Ministry, during the OAS meeting held on Wednesday, Petro responded: “It is not a foreign government that should decide who is the President of Venezuela. It is up to the Venezuelans to reach a political agreement so that the violence in their country ceases and to establish a transparent way to carry out a scrutiny with guarantees for all”.
Since it is the U.S. government, any attempt by it to name a winner, according to opposition figures, will recall the recent ‘Guaidó experiment’, in which more than 50 Western countries recognized a parallel government -under Washington’s tutelage- that was as ineffective as ridiculous.
The reminder to Machado does not come at any time. The day before, Brian Nichols, US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, at the above mentioned OAS meeting, declared the opposition Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner in the July 28 presidential election, giving a different result than the one announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on Sunday night.
Since it is the U.S. government, any attempt by it to name a winner, according to the opposition figures, will recall the recent ‘Guaidó experiment’, in which more than 50 countries of the West recognized a parallel government -under Washington’s tutelage- that was as ineffective as ridiculous.
Therefore, although the Colombian president questioned Machado’s publication, he was indirectly targeting Washington, because of the precedent of Nichols’ statements.
The night of the elections, the CNE disclosed results in which with the counting of 80% of the votes, Maduro obtained 51.2% of the support, against 44% of Edmundo Gonzalez, by about 700,000 votes of advantage.
However, the government denounced a massive hacking of the CNE, from North Macedonia, which prevented it from finalizing the count and comp lying with the established electoral protocol. Therefore, Maduro went to the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) for the body to process and receive the minutes from the political parties that participated in the event, which already have them in their hands due to the fact that the CNE prints one for each witness at the polling stations themselves, which makes the system fully auditable.
Maduro’s allies look to the fairness of the electoral system to demand the world not to make the mistake of proclaiming a president from abroad again. However, they also ask the government for clarity regarding the disclosure of the minutes.
Maduro’s allies focus on the goodness of the electoral system to demand the world not to make the mistake of proclaiming a president from abroad again. However, they also ask the government for clarity regarding the disclosure of the results.
The leaders of Mexico and Brazil have aligned their positions with those of Petro. The nuance is that López Obrador, for his part, has also lashed out against the attempt by the Organization of American States (OAS) to intervene in the matter.
“Why does the OAS have to get involved? That is interference, that is why the OAS has no credibility. On what grounds does the OAS maintain that the other candidate won? Where is the evidence? Let all the votes be counted, let the minutes be reviewed”, asserted the Mexican President.
Lula, for his part, has become a hinge between this group of presidents and Washington. In fact, he held a conversation with Joe Biden on Wednesday afternoon, which resulted in a joint communiqué that seemed to put dikes in place so that the White House would not automatically go on a rampage against Caracas.
On Thursday, the presidents of the three countries (Colombia-Mexico-Brazil) spoke by telephone and then issued a joint communiqué, in order to take a common position to help ease tensions by demanding that the opposition “exercise caution and contain its demonstrations”, and that the Venezuelan electoral authorities “move forward expeditiously and make public the data broken down by polling station”.
The communiqué makes no reference to the transfer of the electoral process to the premises of the TSJ, as requested by Maduro through a writ of amparo.
Source: RT, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English