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CARACAS — The American government on Thursday recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the South American country’s presidential election, discrediting the results announced by electoral authorities who declared President Nicolás Maduro the victor.
“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” Secretary Blinken said in a statement.
The National Electoral Council declared Mr. Maduro the winner of Sunday’s highly anticipated election, but the president’s main challenger, Mr. González, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have said 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.
The announcement from the American government came amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Mr. Maduro to release vote tallies from the election and increasing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials from Brazil and México.
Government officials from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico have been in constant communication with Mr. 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.
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