Maduro rejects offers from Panama and the US amid post-election crisis

Nicolás Maduro rejected the asylum offer from Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, as well as the guarantees from the United States to resolve the crisis following the presidential elections, whose official result he ratified as the winner, an announcement that the largest opposition coalition considers fraudulent.

Through the VTV channel, Maduro asked the president of Panama to govern his country and not try to do so in Venezuela, while demanding respect for the United States.

“I am happy that the United States (…) is willing to give me whatever I need (…) I would ask for respect for Venezuelan democracy; secondly, respect for the independence and stability of Venezuela; thirdly, that we reach an agreement of understanding for 50 years where they stay where they are and let Venezuela be at peace,” said the president.

On the other hand, Maduro stated that Mulino sent him a message, after assuming office, to “count on him” and to promise that relations between Venezuela and Panama would be resumed, but then “he was visited” by the head of the US Southern Command, and after a meeting – Maduro continued – “he came out in an uproar” to call a summit to deal with the post-electoral crisis in the Caribbean country.

“Latin America and the Caribbean unanimously told him (Mulino): ‘Who are you, my friend? You made a mistake, you do not have the authority to call a summit,'” Maduro said.

However, last Thursday, Mulino reported that between six and seven presidents confirmed their attendance at this meeting, while also raising the possibility of it taking place next week, when several leaders will coincide in the Dominican Republic at the swearing-in ceremony of Luis Abinader as re-elected president.

Maduro warned Mulino that “anyone who messes with Venezuela will dry up” and “do badly,” after the president of Panama proposed the summit to “try out more actions that support democracy and the popular will” of the country.

Both Panama and the United States do not recognize the results announced by the CNE and stated that the winner of the presidential elections is Edmundo González Urrutia, who gathered “83.5%” of the electoral records that – he claims – demonstrate his victory, something that Maduro considers as “forged documents.”