By GABRIELA SĂ PESSOA and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) â Diplomatic efforts are underway to persuade President NicolĂĄs Maduro to release vote tallies from Venezuela’s presidential election, after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory and amid increasing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials from Brazil and MĂ©xico.
Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with Maduro’s administration to convince him that he must show the vote tally sheets from Sunday’s election and allow impartial verification, a Brazilian government official told The Associated Press Thursday.
The officials have told Venezuela’s government that showing the data is the only way to dispel any doubt in the results, said the Brazilian official, who asked not be identified because they are not authorized to publicly speak about the diplomatic efforts.
A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the three governments have been discussing the issue with Venezuela but did not provide details. Earlier, Mexico President AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador said he planned to speak with President Luis InĂĄcio Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, and that his government believes it’s important that the electoral tallies be made public.
On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela’s highest court to conduct an audit of the election, but that request drew almost immediate criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.
It wasn’t clear if Maduro’s first concession to demands for more transparency was the result of the discussions with Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Venezuela’s president confirmed during a news conference on Wednesday that he had spoken with Petro about it.Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice is closely aligned with Maduro’s government. The court’s justices are proposed by federal officials and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.
Maduro’s main challenger, Edmundo GonzĂĄlez, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado say they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed. They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Maduro lost.
Asked why electoral authorities have not released detailed vote counts, Maduro said the National Electoral Council has come under attack, including cyber-attacks, without elaborating.
The presidents of Colombia and Brazil â both close allies of the Venezuelan government â have urged Maduro to release detailed vote counts.
The Brazilian official said the diplomatic efforts are only intended to promote dialogue among Venezuelan stakeholders to negotiate a solution to the disputed election. The official said this would include the release of voting data and allowing independent verification.
LĂłpez Obrador said Mexico hopes the will of Venezuela’s people will be respected and that there’s no violence. He added that Mexico expects “that the evidence, the electoral results records, be presented.”
Pressure has been building on the president since the election.
The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has yet to release any results broken down by voting machine, as it did in past elections.
The electoral council reported that Maduro received 5.1 million votes, versus more than 4.4 million for GonzĂĄlez. But Machado, the opposition leader, has said vote tallies show GonzĂĄlez received roughly 6.2 million votes compared with 2.7 million for Maduro.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.
