Lawmakers in the United States and various European countries have announced their recognition of Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the elected president of the country, condemning the dictator’s attempts to steal the election from the Venezuelan people.
On Friday, August 2nd, Senator Michael Bennett of the Democratic Party of Colorado stated in a release that he, along with senators Rubio, Durbin, Scot, Kaine, and Cassidy, introduced a resolution to recognize Gonzalez as the elected president of Venezuela.
Rubio praised the Venezuelan people for their “admirable desire for freedom and democracy.” He stated that during the recent election process, the dictator Maduro falsely claimed victory, and that the United States and other democratic countries cannot legitimize Maduro or support an illegitimate regime. Rubio emphasized that it is time to officially recognize Edmundo Gonzalez as the democratically elected president of Venezuela.
On Thursday, August 1st, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated opposition candidate Gonzalez on his successful campaign.
Gonzalez expressed gratitude on social media platform X, thanking the United States for recognizing the will of the Venezuelan people reflected in their election victory and for supporting Venezuela in restoring democratic norms.
He also separately thanked countries like Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and legislators for their support of the Venezuelan people’s will.
On the same day, the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the U.S., along with the High Representative of the European Union, issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with the Venezuelan people and calling for a resolution of the issue through peaceful, democratic means led by the Venezuelan people.
According to Reuters on Friday, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and leaders of legislative bodies in various European countries signed a joint statement condemning the Maduro government’s handling of the controversial election over the past weekend.
This unprecedented show of solidarity aims to pressure Nicolas Maduro to release the full election results.
Reports indicate that as of Friday morning, legislative leaders from countries such as Armenia, Moldova, Latvia, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Denmark, and Romania have signed similar statements to that of the United States.
The Venezuelan Electoral Council announced that Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, won the election on July 28th with 51% of the vote, sparking immediate allegations of fraud.
The opposition in Venezuela claims that statistics from 90% of the ballots show that Gonzalez’s support is more than twice that of the incumbent president, in line with independent pre-election polls.
Maduro insists on his victory, triggering nationwide protests in Venezuela and condemnation from democratic countries worldwide.
On July 30th, the Chinese Communist Party congratulated Maduro on his re-election.