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Elections in Venezuela do not reflect the will of the people
This statement was released by the State Department
The results of the regional and municipal elections on Sunday, November 21 in Venezuela, was not recognized by the United States. In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Nicolás Maduro has denied citizens the option to cast their vote freely and democratically.
Blinken mentioned the political persecution and harassment of opposition leaders and citizens of civil society.
In addition, he has denounced the criminalization of political parties that oppose him, the control of the media and different practices that he describes as tyrants. "Thus, political pluralism has been invalidated so that the elections do not reflect the wishes of the Venezuelans," he said.
The Secretary of State affirmed that he defends the reconstruction of democracy in Venezuela. In the statement, he explained that they would support Venezuelans in that peaceful desire for democratic reconstruction.
A divided opposition
Sunday's elections, the first in which the opposition participated divided, have been closed with a high abstention, 58%, and the triumph of Chavismo.
Twenty of the 23 disputed governorates are currently in his power. The biggest victory of the Venezuelan opposition is concentrated in the state of Zulia. There, Manuel Rosales was the winner.
To generate even more division among the opposition ranks, Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Chavista National Assembly, has asked that Fuerza Vecinal and Alianza Democrática, the two groups that have won triumphs in three governorates, be available at the dialogue table in Mexico before the fact that there is "one more image of the opposition."
Rodríguez has attacked an opposition sector led by Juan Guaidó. "There is a first loser: the violent and the extremists. Assuming that Juan Guaidó was left without a job on December 6, yesterday, November 21, he was left without a political career, without arguments. They expected abstention," said Rodríguez, Delcy Rodríguez's brother, right hand of Maduro.
The dialogue process is suspended due to the extradition of Alex Saab, whom prosecutor Ortega blamed for being Maduro's frontman. According to the government, he is an extraordinary emissary of Maduro to acquire food and medicine from international allies.
For the United States, the leader and president of Venezuela continues to be Juan Guaidó, who has remained critical of the participation in the elections, despite the fact that the G4, which brings together the main opposition groups, chose to try to open a gap in the ruling party resuming the electoral route.
Among them, the ex-presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonsky, who asked for the vote of the Venezuelans.
There are those who want new faces in the opposition leadership, but Guaidó guarantees that he will remain in office until there are free and fair legislative elections.
Meanwhile, Venezuelans are trying to survive with hyperinflation and extreme poverty compared to Haiti or Cuba.
