Biden and Lula urge Venezuelan authorities to release detailed presidential election voting data

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday agreed that Venezuela must release detailed voting data from Sunday’s presidential vote after electoral authorities friendly to President Nicolás Maduro declared him the winner in a result disputed by the opposition.

The government meanwhile ratcheted up its attacks on the main opposition coalition, suggesting its leader Maria Corina Machado and her handpicked presidential candidate should be arrested.

The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has said Maduro won the election. The opposition says that its candidate, Edmundo González, secured more than twice as many votes as the incumbent, and that it has voting precinct data to prove it. The council has yet to release any figures at the polling station level.

Biden and Lula — a Maduro ally — “agreed on the need for immediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data at the polling station level by the Venezuelan electoral authorities,” according to a White House statement summary of a phone call between the two leaders.

The outcome “represents a critical moment for democracy in the hemisphere,” the presidents said.

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Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.

As both sides defended their claim to victory, thousands of their supporters took to the streets of the capital, Caracas.

A huge crowd of opposition supporters gathered outside the United Nations’ offices. Machado, standing atop a truck, called on the National Electoral Council to release the voting tally sheets produced by every precinct after polls closed, saying, “Why don’t they publish them?”

Machado said the opposition coalition behind González’s candidacy won more than 84% of the tallies and she is confident he was chosen as the next president.

“The only thing we are willing to negotiate is the peaceful transition,” Machado said, as the crowd chanted: “We have no fear!”

Opposition supporters elsewhere in the city were met with tear gas Tuesday. More than 700 were arrested in nationwide protests Monday, and at last one officer was killed, according to Attorney General Tarek William Saab.

Machado and González urged their supporters to remain calm and avoid violence.

“And remember this figure, when the tally sheets are counted, yours truly will have more than 8 million votes,” González said, flanked by his wife and Machado, who has been barred from running for political office for 15 years. “We are going to begin the reconstruction of Venezuela.”

Their celebration came hours after the Organization of American States lambasted the government for not releasing the data and suggested a new election that would be monitored by international observers.

“The worst form of repression, the most vile, is to prevent the people from finding solutions through elections,” the OAS said in a statement. “The obligation of each institution in Venezuela should be to ensure freedom, justice, and transparency in the electoral process.”

Maduro’s closest allies came to his defense. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez — his chief negotiator in dialogues with the U.S. and the opposition — insisted that Maduro was the indisputable winner and called the opposition violent fascists.

“Never! They will never come to power!” Rodriguez said before clapping lawmakers.

Praising the arrest of the protesters, he said Machado should also be jailed and González should be arrested “because he is the leader of the fascist conspiracy that is trying to impose itself in Venezuela.”

Diosdado Cabello, a lawmaker and ruling party leader, later said: “We are going to screw them because these people do not deserve to shed one more drop of blood for fascism.”

U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk expressed alarm over the post-election climate.

“Hundreds of people have been arrested, including children. This troubles me deeply,” he said in a statement. “I am alarmed by reports of disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials along with violence by armed individuals supporting the Government.”

Long lines of residents started to build Tuesday outside supermarkets and other stores in Caracas in apparent anticipation of a prolonged period of demonstrations that could lead to food shortages.

In the port city of La Guaira, people toppled a statue of Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, dragged it to the street and set it on fire during Monday’s protests. Maduro unveiled the statue in 2017, and by Tuesday all that remained was its base, littered with twisted rebar and broken cement.

The election was among the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting hopes that Venezuela could 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.

“I hold you, Mr. González Urrutia, responsible for everything that is happening in Venezuela, for the criminal violence, the criminals, the wounded, the dead, the destruction,” Maduro said Tuesday during a televised meeting of the National Defense Council. “You will be directly responsible, Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia, and you, Mrs. Machado, and justice has to come, in Venezuela there has to be justice because these things cannot happen again.”

Machado told reporters that tally sheets from polling stations show Maduro had received more than 2.7 million votes while González secured roughly 6.2 million. The electoral council reported that Maduro and González garnered about 5.1 million and more than 4.4 million votes respectively.

More than 9 million people cast ballots, according to figures from electoral officials.

The number of eligible voters was estimated to be around 17 million. Another 4 million Venezuelans are registered but live abroad, and many did not meet the requirements to register to cast ballots overseas.

As Machado and González stood atop the truck, supporters began chanting “President! President!”

“This gathering smells like triumph,” González told them.

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Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in La Guaira, Venezuela, and Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report.