LatinNews Daily - 5 August 2024

Venezuela: On 1 August US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognised Venezuela’s opposition candidate, Edmundo González, as the winner of the country’s 28 July presidential election, in which President Nicolás Maduro was declared the victor amid widespread allegations of fraud. This comes amid a wider ratcheting up by the US of its criticism of the Maduro administration’s handling of the election and its aftermath. Indeed, on 30 July the US government led by President Joe Biden expressed concern about the expulsion of several foreign diplomats from Venezuela. Maduro expelled diplomats from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay on 29 July after their governments questioned the results of the election. Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the US Department of State, said in a press conference on 30 July that the US government was “concerned about” the expulsion of diplomatic personnel from Venezuela and was “paying close attention” to the situation. He also reiterated the US stance on the election itself, saying that it was “undermined by anti-democratic actions, political repression, and electoral manipulation.” In the same vein, US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the presidential candidate for the Democratic party ahead of the US presidential elections in November, called for “the immediate release of detailed polling data of the results of the Venezuelan election” in a social media post on 30 July. Responding to the repression of protesters in the days following the election she wrote that: “Violence, harassment, and threats against peaceful protesters and political actors are unacceptable.” US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols also spoke out on social media on 30 July, stating that: “We reject calls by Maduro and his inner circle for the arrests of Venezuelan opposition leaders Edmundo González and María Corina Machado.”

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