EU insists Maduro did not win in Venezuela and does not take the step of recognizing Gonzalez

EU asks Maduro to publish the minutes / Photo: Courtesy

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, insisted on Friday that the European Union does not recognize Nicolás Maduro’s victory in the elections last July because he has not presented the minutes and recalled that the Twenty-Seven have not taken the step of recognizing the victory of opposition leader Edmundo González either.

“Everything seems to indicate, based on the information provided by the opposition, that the election result is certainly in favour of Edmundo (González), but (the EU foreign ministers) did not go any further,” Borrell said today at a press conference, in relation to the meeting held yesterday by the heads of European diplomacy in Brussels, in which they discussed the issue of Venezuela.

The EU has asked the Maduro regime to publish the electoral results and until it does so, it refuses to recognise his victory because “we cannot consider him democratically or legitimately elected.” “This is what the ministers decided and they did not say anything else. But the story did not end yesterday. We will continue studying and deciding on this matter,” said Borrell.

And in this regard, he pointed out that “Maduro will be interim president until the time comes when the change of presidents should take place. This will be in January” and “between now and January, there is time,” he said.

The Twenty-Seven yesterday ruled out imposing sanctions on Venezuela despite not having published the minutes, more than a month after the elections were held, because, according to Borrell, the EU has already sanctioned 55 politicians of the regime, “among them the vice president, who is now Minister, I believe, of Petroleum (Delcy Rodríguez) and the one who is now Minister of the Interior (Diosado Cabello).”

“More personal sanctions would mean going directly to the sanctions against the top political leaders, there are only two or three left who are not sanctioned,” said Borrell, referring to Maduro himself.

The Venezuelan opposition leader connected yesterday by videoconference to discuss the situation in Venezuela with the foreign ministers of the EU.

Caracas / EFE