Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday that there are “serious doubts” about last Sunday’s presidential elections in Venezuela and asked the government of that country to carry out a “transparent” vote count and accept the result, “whatever it may be.”
“The serious doubts surrounding the Venezuelan electoral process could lead its people to a deep, violent polarization with serious consequences of permanent division of a nation that has known how to unite many times in its history,” Petro said in a message on his X account, in his first statement regarding the elections in the Caribbean country.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) released its only bulletin on Sunday night, awarding victory to President Nicolás Maduro with 51.2% of the votes, compared to 44.2% for opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, supported by leader María Corina Machado, who is disqualified from running in the elections, a result that has been questioned by the international community.
Even the Carter Center, which participated as an observer in the elections, said on Tuesday that the process “did not conform” to international parameters and standards of electoral integrity, and therefore “cannot be considered democratic.”
“I invite the Venezuelan government to allow the elections to end in peace, allowing for a transparent vote count, with the recording of votes and with oversight by all political forces in the country and professional international oversight,” Petro added.
The Colombian president added that the vote count, as “the end of any electoral process, must be transparent and ensure peace and democracy.”
Messages to Maduro and the US
“President Maduro has a great responsibility today, to remember the spirit of (Hugo) Chávez, and allow the Venezuelan people to return to tranquility while the elections end in peace and the transparent result is accepted, whatever it may be,” said Petro, who has been close to Maduro, with whose government he reestablished diplomatic relations a few weeks after assuming the Colombian presidency, in August 2022.
Petro added that while a “transparent” vote count is being carried out, it is necessary to maintain the tranquility of “the opposing citizen forces” in order to “stop the violence that leads to death,” a reference to the protests against the CNE results that have left at least eleven dead in Venezuela.
“We respectfully propose reaching an agreement between the government and the opposition that allows for maximum respect for the force that lost the elections. This agreement can be submitted as a Unilateral State Declaration to the United Nations Security Council,” he added.
The Colombian president also asked the United States government to “suspend the blockades and decisions against Venezuelan citizens.”
“The blockade is an inhumane measure that only brings more hunger and more violence than there already is and promotes the mass exodus of people. Emigration to the US from Latin America will decrease substantially if the blockades are lifted,” he added.
Calling for peace and tranquility in the Caribbean country, Petro said that “anything that happens in Venezuela will affect Colombia and vice versa.”
In this regard, he recalled that “the Venezuelan government has helped bring peace to Colombia” by hosting or guaranteeing talks with guerrilla groups and that is why his government “wants to help bring peace to Venezuela. Latin America must be a region of democracy, freedom and peace,” he said.
Bogota / EFE
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2024-08-01 09:29:19
