In a controversial turn of events, the Biden Administration's decision to lift sanctions at the request of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has sparked allegations that Maduro has stolen another six-year term, amidst accusations of widespread fraud and international condemnation.
The Biden Administration, responding to a request from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, lifted sanctions effectively allowing Maduro to steal another six-year term. President Biden has not addressed Maduro's alleged electoral misconduct and has not announced plans to reinstate the sanctions.
The opposition disputes the results released by the Maduro government, asserting that they won the election with 70% of the vote. Polls conducted over the summer consistently showed opposition candidate Edmundo González leading by double-digit margins.
Around midnight, the National Electoral Council, controlled by Maduro loyalists, announced that Maduro had received 51% of the vote compared to González's 44%. The council, led by President Elvis Amoroso, stated these results were based on 80% of voting stations and represented an irreversible trend, but has refused to release detailed vote tallies to support their claims.
Despite Maduro being declared the winner for a third term, the opposition claimed victory, setting up a potential showdown with the government over the results.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized the outcome and the Biden administration's policies. "Another foreign policy fiasco from the Biden-Harris team," he wrote on X. "They gave Maduro relief from Trump oil sanctions and released his top money launderer and his two convicted drug dealer nephews in exchange for a 'promise' to hold fair elections monitored by neutral international observers."
The electoral authority, loyal to Maduro, did not immediately release results from the 30,000 polling booths across the country, hindering the opposition's ability to contest the results. They claimed to have data for only about 30% of the ballot boxes.
"The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened," González said.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado stated that González's margin of victory was "overwhelming," citing voting results from about 40% of ballot boxes, with more expected overnight.
Officials and lawmakers in the U.S. and other countries expressed skepticism about the validity of Venezuela's presidential election results. A bipartisan group of congressional leaders declared Maduro's victory fraudulent:
"To no one’s surprise, dictator Nicolás Maduro has once again stolen a presidential election. However, what the narco-regime will never steal is the Venezuelan people’s desire to return to democracy and live in freedom after decades of tyranny."
The statement continued, "We must prioritize uniting the free world in rejecting these sham election results and securing the release of the more than 300 Venezuelans that remain arbitrarily detained in torture centers as political prisoners."
Speaking in Tokyo on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed "serious concerns" about the announced outcome. He stated that the U.S. feared the result did not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people and called for election officials to release the full results. Blinken added that the U.S. and the international community would respond accordingly.
Later on Monday, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel echoed Blinken's concerns, stating, "We have serious concerns that this result does not reflect the will and the votes of the Venezuelan people."
.png)