- The Mexican president also said that he has not had any communication with Nicolás Maduro during the post-election crisis | Photo: EFE
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday, August 23, did not recognize Nicolás Maduro’s reelection, insisting that the electoral records must be made public.
“We are going to wait for the minutes to be released because yesterday the Electoral Tribunal of Venezuela maintained that President Maduro won the election and, at the same time, recommended that the minutes be released. I believe there is a date for the resolution, so we are going to wait,” he declared in his morning press conference.
The Mexican leader did not join the joint rejection made by Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay regarding the ruling of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, which certified the results of the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Questioned by the press about his opinion, López Obrador said he was “respectful” of the decisions taken in other countries. He said there was a “bunch” of disqualifications and condemnations of the Venezuelan government.
“But, I repeat, we have to act in accordance with our Constitution,” he concluded.
He insisted that he would wait to comment on the case of Venezuela, arguing that “the best foreign policy is domestic policy.”
He also said that he had not had any communication with Nicolás Maduro during the post-election crisis, recalling that he last met with him in Palenque, in the southern state of Chiapas, at a summit on migration that Mexico hosted in October 2023.
“The president of Honduras attended, the prime minister, I think, of Haiti, as well as President (Gustavo) Petro, President (Miguel) Díaz-Canel of Cuba, and Xiomara (Castro) of Honduras,” he recalled as a sign of his government’s relations with the rest of the countries.
He insisted, however, that he has not spoken with Maduro during this electoral period in Venezuela.
“No (I have not spoken with him), that is what our adversaries think, imagine, and spread slanderously. We are very respectful. I just had (weeks ago) a phone call with President (Luiz Inácio) Lula (da Silva of Brazil) and President (Gustavo) Petro on the subject of Venezuela and we set out our position,” he said.
11 countries jointly rejected the TSJ’s decision on Maduro’s victory
On Friday, August 23, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay jointly rejected the announcement by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela, which certified the victory of President Nicolás Maduro in the elections of July 28.
In a joint statement issued by the Chilean Foreign Ministry, the governments of the 11 countries questioned “the alleged verification of the results of the electoral process of July 28, issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which seeks to validate the unsupported results issued by the electoral body.”
Our countries had already expressed their disapproval of the validity of the CNE declaration, after opposition representatives were denied access to the official count, the non-publication of the minutes and the subsequent refusal to carry out an impartial and independent audit of all of them,” they added.
In line with this argument, they recalled that “the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela warned about the lack of independence and impartiality of both institutions, the CNE and the TSJ.”
“The undersigned countries reiterate that only an impartial and independent audit of the votes, which evaluates all the minutes, will guarantee respect for the sovereign popular will and democracy in Venezuela. Like the rest of the international democratic community, we will continue to insist on respect for the sovereign expression of the Venezuelan people who expressed themselves peacefully and forcefully on July 28,” they stressed.
With information from EFE
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2024-08-24 06:32:45
