US and Colombia discuss urgent democratic transition in Venezuela

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo the urgency of the American region exerting even more pressure, and now “with one voice,” for Venezuela to “return to a democratic path.”

According to Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesman for the Secretariat of State, this pressure should not exclude the participation of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The head of US diplomacy held a telephone call with Murillo, whom he thanked for Colombia’s efforts aimed at facilitating a dialogue in view of “the return of democracy in Venezuela,” according to Patel.

They discussed the need for Venezuelan electoral authorities to “publish transparent results at the polling station level” on the presidential elections of July 28, in which, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), the current president of that country, Nicolás Maduro, was re-elected for a third consecutive term.

This result is rejected by the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the largest opposition bloc in Venezuela, which insists on the victory of its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, and this has unleashed multiple protests that have resulted in 25 deaths and more than 2,400 arrests, according to official figures.

Blinken and Murillo also discussed the urgency of the South American country’s security forces “refraining from violating the human rights and freedom of expression of Venezuelans.”

The CNE, which claims to have suffered a cyber attack on election day, has yet to publish disaggregated results confirming Maduro’s victory – contrary to its own rules – a silence that has been questioned by numerous countries.

For its part, the anti-Chavez alliance published on a website – investigated by the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office – “83.5%” of the electoral records that confirm, according to the coalition, that González Urrutia won by a wide margin.