Venezuela opposition wants candidate recognized as president-elect

Venezuela's opposition chief Maria Corina Machado on Thursday called on the world to recognize candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as president-elect after a disputed election in the oil-rich nation.

President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in the July 28 vote, but many in the international community have refused to acknowledge that result.

However, they have also stopped short of accepting Gonzalez Urrutia as the president-elect, instead calling for Caracas to publish detailed polling results to substantiate its claim that Maduro won a third term.

"The world knows Edmundo Gonzalez is the president-elect and Maduro was defeated by a landslide," Machado said during a virtual appearance.

"I think it's certainly come to a point in which we need to move ahead... and this is a moment in which Edmundo Gonzalez should be recognized as president-elect of Venezuela."

The United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries have refused to recognize Maduro's claimed victory without seeing detailed election results.

The opposition published its own voting records, which it says showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning 67 percent of the vote.

Venezuela's electoral authority said it cannot provide a full breakdown of the July 28 election results, blaming a cyber attack on its systems.

Observers have said there is no evidence of any such hacking.

"They are not going to do it because the results would prove that we win," said Machado.

The UN Security Council met Thursday to discuss the situation at the request of Ecuador, which recognized Gonzalez Urrutia in early August as the "legitimate winner" of the vote.

Peru's Foreign Minister Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea also recognized the opposition candidate as Venezuela's "president-elect" shortly after the vote, prompting Caracas to sever diplomatic relations.

But in an apparent U-turn on Thursday, Peruvian Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen denied his country had recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela's rightful leader.

- A failed precedent -

After Venezuela's last election, in 2018, Maduro was proclaimed winner amid widespread accusations of fraud.

Eventually, the United States and many other countries recognized the then-speaker of parliament, Juan Guaido, as acting president.

However, Guaido never had any real power. The opposition dissolved its "interim government" in 2022 and the once wildly popular young politician faded from public life.

Washington has said it is weighing "a range of options" against Maduro and his allies.

Maduro has led the oil-rich but cash-poor country since 2013, presiding over a GDP drop of 80 percent that pushed more than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela's 30 million citizens to emigrate.

Ahead of the election, Machado was polling as the most popular politician in the country before she was banned from the race by courts loyal to Maduro.

Gonzalez Urrutia, a little-known former diplomat, stood in for her at the last minute.

When Maduro's victory was announced, protests erupted from citizens complaining their vote had been stolen, leaving 25 civilians and two soldiers dead, and some 2,400 in jail.

Maduro blames the opposition for the violence and has said Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia both belong behind bars.

Human Rights Watch slammed "shockingly brutal" repression at the hands of security forces.

"Maduro feels that he can kill people, make people disappear, detain people without anything happening," said Machado.

"He has to be held accountable for the crimes he has committed, and he has to understand that the world will not just look the other way."

- Arrest warrant -

Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez Urrutia over his insistence that he is the rightful winner of the election.

Gonzalez Urrutia "must present himself and be brought to justice," the country's attorney general Tarek William Saab told a press conference Thursday, accusing him of taking "justice into his own hands."

Gonzalez Urrutia's lawyer, Jose Vicente Haro, said the statements made it clear his client did not have "sufficient constitutional guarantees" to turn himself in.

Gonzalez Urrutia has been in hiding for a month, ignoring three successive summons to appear before prosecutors, as Haro said he was in a position of "defenselessness."