US President Joe Biden will speak with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday afternoon, amid an electoral crisis in Venezuela and Brazil’s attempts to obtain evidence of the minutes certifying Nicolás Maduro’s victory announced Sunday by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE).
The White House said Biden and Lula will speak at 2:30 p.m. local time, a conversation that is expected to focus on the crisis unleashed in Venezuela due to the doubts expressed by several countries on the continent, including the United States, about the legitimacy of the electoral results presented on Sunday by the CNE without a definitive or disaggregated scrutiny.
Lula sent his international affairs adviser and former foreign minister, Celso Amorim, who met with Maduro and pressed for access to the electoral records certifying Maduro’s victory over the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, supported by Maria Corina Machado.
The United States, for its part, expressed doubts that Sunday’s result reflects the will of the majority of the Venezuelan people.
Washington said Monday that the announcement of the results of the Venezuelan elections had no credibility and called on local authorities to publish the results.
“By declaring a winner without the detailed district-by-district tally sheets to back it up, Maduro’s representatives have stripped any credibility from the supposed election results they announced,” a senior U.S. official said in a call with reporters.
“We have serious concerns that this result does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” he added.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro’s victory with 51.20% of the votes compared to 44.20% for opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, with 80% of the votes counted.
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2024-08-01 22:21:10
