On Monday, the Biden administration said that election fraud made Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s claim of reelection “lack any credibility.” Washington also said that new penalties could be put on the OPEC country.
When senior U.S. officials talked to reporters about Sunday’s election, they made Washington’s answer to the disputed vote stronger. Venezuela’s electoral authority said Maduro won a third term, which would extend 25 years of socialist party rule.
Independent exit polls showed that the alternative would win by a huge margin.
A lot of countries, including the US, don’t trust the official count of votes. Edmundo Gonzalez, who is running against Maduro, said that he was the real winner.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the U.S. officials echoed the calls from President Joe Biden’s top advisors for Maduro to release a full list of votes. They said that if he didn’t, the international community would not accept the result that had been announced.
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The officials did not announce any new punishments, but they did say that Washington would reevaluate its sanctions against Venezuela based on what Maduro did in the future.
“We may be facing a new situation,” a government source said. “We are going to take that into account as we map forward where we may head for sanctions toward Venezuela.”
Washington called Maduro’s reelection in 2018 a fraud, so in October of last year, it eased sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry in response to a deal between Maduro and the opposition. But in April, the U.S. put the sanctions back in place, saying Maduro had broken promises he made during the election.
“By engaging in repression and electoral manipulation, and by declaring a winner without the detailed precinct by-precinct polling results … Maduro representatives have stripped the supposed election results they announced of any credibility,” a US source said.
Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, said earlier in Tokyo, “We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
Early on Monday, Maduro repeated a campaign promise that Venezuela’s voting system is open and honest.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House, said that the U.S. would wait to decide until it had more information, but that it would then “respond accordingly.”
U.S. Coordinates International Response
The U.S. officials didn’t give many details about the wrongdoings they think Maduro’s side did in the election.
But one official said that the announcement from the electoral commission “does not track with data that we’ve received through quick-count mechanisms and other sources” and didn’t seem to match up with how people voted in Venezuela.
Officials said that the U.S. was working on a reaction with allies in the region and would also talk with partners around the world about what might happen to Maduro’s government.
A top U.S. source said that the government was in touch with Brazil and other Latin American governments that were worried about what was going on in Venezuela’s government.
BREAKING: White House says patience is “running out” for Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro to release valid election results to back up his claim that he won the presidential election.
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) July 31, 2024
The White House said that Biden will talk to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, on Tuesday afternoon.
They supported Biden’s administration’s choice to work with Maduro again last year after the “maximum pressure” campaign under Trump, even though the Venezuelan leader has a history of breaking political promises.
One source said that Sunday’s election was a clear call for change by Venezuelans and would make it easier for the opposition to talk to Maduro.
But U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican who is very critical of Maduro, criticized the Democratic government on X, calling it “the latest example of how our enemies have suckered Biden and (Vice President) Kamala Harris repeatedly.”
Analysts say that if Maduro is re-elected or there is chaos after the election, it could make more Venezuelans want to leave the country and go to the border with Mexico.
Immigration is already a big issue in the U.S. presidential race, and this could make things worse for Harris, who is thought to be the likely Democratic choice now that Biden has dropped his reelection bid on July 21.
