MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Machado urges US to recognize González Urrutia as as President-elect of Venezuela

“We need to move forward,” Machado argued

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado insisted Thursday that the United States should recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate winner of the July 28 elections at which the incumbent Nicolás Maduro claims to have prevailed despite producing no evidence to support these allegations other than a declaration from the pro-Government National Electoral Council (CNE) and a ruling validating it from the subservient electoral branch of the Supreme Court (TSJ).

 During a forum with the Council of the Americas, the disenfranchised Machado stressed that Maduro “was defeated by a landslide” and therefore the Chavista administration was committing fraud. “The world knows that Edmundo González is the President-elect and that Maduro was defeated by a landslide,” Machado said in a virtual forum with the New York-based Americas Society/Council of the Americas. “We have reached a point where we need to move forward, as I said, and this is a moment when Edmundo Gonzalez must be recognized as president-elect of Venezuela,” she added.

The United States, the European Union, and several Latin American countries do not recognize the results announced by Caracas but still fall short of referring to González Urrutia of the opposition Unitarian Democratic Platform (Plataforma Unitaria Democrática - PUD) as “president-elect.”

In the meantime, Venezuela's Judiciary has issued an arrest warrant against him for “conspiracy” and other crimes under investigation by Attorney General Tarek William Saab. Hence, the presidential candidate has been in hiding since July 30. In the aftermath of the controversial elections, 27 people were killed, nearly 200 were wounded, and around 2,400 have been placed under arrest, including hundreds of minors, 86 of whom were subsequently released.

The White House said this week it was weighing its options against Maduro.