US, Brazil float new Venezuela election despite government, opposition rebuffs

SAO PAULO/WASHINGTON/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday seemingly backed a new election in Venezuela, after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also floated the idea, despite rebuffs from Venezuela's ruling party and its opposition which both claim victory in the July 28 contest.

Biden spoke to reporters in the wake of Lula's suggestion that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro could call a new contest involving international observers as a potential solution for the political crisis in the country. The U.S. has rejected Madura's victory claim.

Asked if he supports a new election in Venezuela, Biden said "I do".

A National Security Council spokesperson later said Biden was "speaking to the absurdity of Maduro and his representatives not coming clean about the July 28 elections," without fully walking back Biden's comment.

The spokesperson added it is "abundantly clear" that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won the election.

A U.S. official, speaking on background, said the U.S. position had not changed and the vast majority of countries in the region were asking Maduro to release the results and recognize the outcome of the election.

The new election suggestion is among several from the international community which have no support so far from either Maduro or his opposition coalition opponents.

The U.S., which hardened oil sanctions in April on the OPEC member for what it said was Maduro's failure to comply with a deal on electoral conditions, and other Western countries are showing little sign of swift, tough action over what many of them have condemned as voting fraud.

Maduro rejected Biden and Lula's comments, saying the United States and Brazil have had contested elections where Venezuela has refrained from involving itself.

"I reject absolutely that the United States is trying to become Venezuela's electoral authority," Maduro said on state television. "Biden gave an interventionist opinion on the internal issues of Venezuela ... half an hour later they squashed it."

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado ruled out Biden and Lula's suggestion.

"The election already happened," Machado told journalists from Argentina and Chile in a video call later on Thursday. "Maduro must be made to know that the cost of his staying grows with each day that passes."

Ruling party officials in Venezuela have also previously ruled out new elections.

Lula had said a "coalition government" could be another possible solution for Venezuela.

"If (Maduro) has common sense, he could put it to the people, perhaps calling new elections with a nonpartisan electoral committee," Lula said in a radio interview.

The Brazilian president said he still does not recognize Maduro as the winner of the vote and that his government must publish voting tallies that have not been released, echoing calls from countries around the world over the last two weeks.

"Maduro knows he owes Brazil and the world an explanation," Lula said.

Lula and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro spoke by phone on Wednesday as part of efforts to find a solution to Venezuela's crisis, but no details were released of the conversation.

Petro suggested in a post on X on Thursday that the Venezuelan ruling party and the opposition could temporarily trade off power, echoing an arrangement used in Colombia for 16 years in the twentieth century.

"The political solution for Venezuela depends on Nicolas Maduro, who carries the peace and prosperity of his country," Petro said, adding in another post that a political deal is the best option and depends on Venezuelans.

Petro, who reopened trade and diplomatic relations with Venezuela after he took office in 2022, also called for the lifting of all sanctions on Venezuela.

Latin American leaders will discuss the crisis this weekend when many are in the Dominican Republic to attend the inauguration of that country's new president, Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino said on Thursday during his weekly press conference.

Lula's top foreign policy advisor Celso Amorim, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Brazil had not formally proposed a new election in Venezuela.

Conservative senators at the hearing criticized the Lula administration for favoring Maduro with its soft stance, and asked what Brazil was doing for jailed opposition leaders.

Amorim said Brazil offered to send a plane to pick up six opposition members seeking asylum in the Argentine embassy, now under a Brazilian flag since Venezuela broke ties with Argentina.

Venezuela's electoral authority proclaimed Maduro won 51% of the vote but has not divulged full vote tallies.

Tallies in possession of the opposition, which it has posted to a public website, show Gonzalez received 67% of the vote.

(Reporting by Luana Maria Benedito and Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo, Costas Pitas in Washington and Candelaria Grimberg in Buenos Aires, additional reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas and Elida Moreno in Panama City; Editing by Stephen CoatesWriting by Anthony Boadle and Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Gabriel Araujo, David Holmes and Marguerita Choy)