Lula says new elections could be the solution in Venezuela

Colombian President Gustavo Petro also says that new elections could be a solution, but both Maduro and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado reject the proposal.

In a virtual interview with Argentine and Chilean journalists, Machado said that elections have already been held that the opposition won, and that it would be an insult to the people of Venezuela to deny it.

– If Maduro does not accept the result of a second election either, should we go for a third election, she asked.

Does not recognize the choice

Lula says another possible solution after the disputed election, which both Maduro and the opposition claim they won, could be a coalition government.

– If he is reasonably reasonable, he could leave the decision to the people of Venezuela, for example by calling a new election, creating a new independent electoral committee and inviting election observers from around the world, Lula said on Thursday to Radio T.

Lula makes it clear that he still does not want to recognize Maduro as the winner of the July election, and that Maduro’s government must make public the protocols from all constituencies.

– Maduro knows he owes Brazil and the rest of the world an explanation, he said.

Petro also proposes new elections. He said on Thursday on X that a political solution depends on Maduro, and that a new election can be held at the same time as the sanctions against the country are lifted and an amnesty is introduced for prisoners in Venezuela and for the regime internationally

Lula and his colleague in Colombia, Gustavo Petro, spoke to Maduro on the phone on Wednesday, but details of the conversation have not been made public.

Battle for pine

Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission announced after the election that Maduro was the winner with 51 percent of the vote. But they have not yet published the official election records.

The opposition, for its part, says that its detailed tally of the election records shows that its candidate Edmundo González received 67 percent of the vote, almost 4 million more than Maduro.

An analysis by the news agency AP also shows that the opposition won clearly. Both the Carter Center, which was invited as an observer to the election, and the UN have produced devastating reports on the election.

Left cooperation

Many countries in Latin America have recognized González as the new president, while some support Maduro.

But the left-wing leaders of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Chile, who have had a reasonably good relationship with Maduro, have taken a more neutral stance,

The first three agreed to demand that the election records from all constituencies be made public, as required by law in Venezuela, before they will accept the result.

Celso Amorim, former foreign minister and Lula’s top adviser on foreign affairs, was an observer during the election and said in a congressional hearing that a new election would have to be verified in a solid and robust manner.

He also said that Brazil is willing to extract six opposition politicians who sought refuge in Argentina’s embassy in Caracas. Brazil took over responsibility for the embassy after diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Argentina were severed.