The US secretary of state insists Venezuelans' votes in the recent presidential election "must count".

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His intervention comes as the presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia all called on Venezuela to release the full details of last Sunday’s election.

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It has also attracted global criticism, with many governments around the world demanding the Venezuelan government release proof of the result.

The result has been recognised by Venezuelan allies China, Russia and Iran.

But, the US, European Union and other G7 countries have called on Mr Maduro’s government to release detailed voting data.

  • WanderingVentraEnglish
    814·
    1 month ago

    Even in the US it can take a like a week to compile detailed election results. In the 2000 election, it took more than 30 days to settle the election. They ended up handing it to the conservatives and life has gone downhill for the US since. You may really believe it, but there are people in the US who thought Trump would win every state and have called it a steal ever since.

    It’s definitely possible he stole it, it’s very in character, but the US has a vested interest in helping the opposition make up numbers and it’s very in character for them to help with a coup, too. I’m just going to keep an open mind for a couple more days probably, see if any more countries jump in being angry at Venezuela that aren’t US aligned or if any more evidence comes out.

      • WanderingVentraEnglish
        78·
        1 month ago

        There’s no way to independently verify that the opposition’s source data is accurate. It doesn’t mean much until we can see the official data to see if it can explain the discrepancies. If there’s no competing data released within the next couple days then we can take it at face value, and I’ll 100% accept it, but until then, I’d at least give them as much time as I gave Biden. That seems fair. Especially if they’re worried about hacks and opposition messing with the election data (and it’s not like the US doesn’t have a history of messing with elections so it’s not completely unbelievable despite everyone’s incredulity here).

          • WanderingVentraEnglish
            65·
            1 month ago

            Those exit polls were done by a US research agency that’s worked with US government projects before.

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
      73·
      1 month ago

      The election in 2000 took a long time because it was very close in one state that would make a difference.

      The opposition in Venezuela for once was organized and unified. They put observers in most polling places, which is their right in Venezuela. They were still denied access in some of them.

      All parties have a right to get the tally from each site prior to it being sent to the central committee. The opposition has presented the tally sheets to the press. The government has not.

      The level of proof is incredible. It should not be necessary. And yet even with this in hand, people doubt because they like socialism.

      • WanderingVentraEnglish
        48·
        1 month ago

        Even in 2020, it took many days before they called the election and released counts. Maduro is saying they tried to release it but got hacked, which I know is unbelievable to people here, but it is 100% within the US’s power and interest to do so. I admit it doesn’t look good, but if the government doesn’t get data out within a couple days, I’d be more inclined to believe the opposition. I just don’t want to rush to anything considering the history of elections in this country and US meddling, it’s perhaps making me overly cautious lol.

        Also, in their defense, socialism has helped people in countries of equivalent development more than capitalism every single time so that makes sense. Argentina has already speed run a higher inflation rate than Venezuela with their great capitalist policies. For globally south countries, “free markets” always means letting foreign companies trade local resources, at the cost of losing sanctions from those foreign companies, which artificially make it seem like those policies were better than they actually were. Maduro has made lots of mistakes but an alternate left candidate would be more likely to help the country than a right-wing one.

        Now Venezuela isn’t super socialist, and I heard Gonzalez is supposed to be kinda centrist, so hopefully it’s not that bad if he ends up in charge. But currently, Machado also seems like the one saying everything and leading the movement, and she’s already revealed herself to be pro Zionist, which reveals a pro-imperialist sentiment, which is a red flag to me.