CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 Pressure kept building against Venezuelan\u00a0President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u00a0on Wednesday, when his close ally Colombian President Gustavo Petro, joined other foreign leaders in urging him to release detailed vote counts from the\u00a0recent presidential election\u00a0after electoral authorities declared him the winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Petro\u2019s comments come as the National Electoral Council, which is loyal to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has yet to release any printed results from polling centers as it did in past elections. A day earlier, another of Maduro\u2019s allies, Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, along with U.S. President Joe Biden called for the \u201cimmediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data at the polling station level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rebukes follow the stunning announcement Monday of Maduro\u2019s main challenger,\u00a0Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez,\u00a0and opposition leader\u00a0Maria Corina Machado,\u00a0that they had secured more than two-thirds of\u00a0the tally sheets\u00a0that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed on Sunday. They said the release of the data on those tallies\u00a0would prove Maduro lost\u00a0the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Machado said the tallies show Gonz\u00e1lez received roughly 6.2 million votes compared with 2.7 million for Maduro. That is widely different from the electoral council\u2019s report that Maduro received 5.1 million votes, against more than 4.4 million for Gonz\u00e1lez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe serious doubts that have arisen around the Venezuelan electoral process can lead its people to a deep violent polarization with serious consequences of permanent division,\u201d Petro said Wednesday in a post on social media site X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI invite the Venezuelan government to allow the elections to end in peace, allowing a transparent vote count, with the counting of votes, and with the supervision of all the political forces of its country and professional international supervision,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Petro also proposed that Maduro\u2019s government and the opposition reach an agreement \u201cthat allows for the maximum respect of the (political) force that has lost the elections.\u201d The agreement, he said, could be submitted to the United Nations Security Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venezuela has the\u00a0world\u2019s largest proven crude reserves\u00a0and once boasted Latin America\u2019s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to\u00a0social unrest and mass emigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 7.7 million\u00a0Venezuelans have left the country\u00a0since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America\u2019s recent history. Many have settled in Colombia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Carter Center, an independent U.S.-based institution that evaluates elections, said late Tuesday it was unable to verify the results of\u00a0Venezuela\u2019s\u00a0presidential election, blaming authorities for a \u201ccomplete lack of transparency\u201d in declaring Maduro the winner without providing any individual polling tallies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group was authorized earlier this year by Venezuela\u2019s electoral authorities to send experts to observe the election. It had 17 experts spread out in four cities on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe electoral authority\u2019s failure to announce disaggregated results by polling station constitutes a serious breach of electoral principles,\u201d the Carter Center said, adding that the election did not meet international standards and \u201ccannot be considered democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results announced Monday by the electoral council within hours drew thousands of protesters to the streets of the capital, Caracas, and other cities. The protests, which continued into Tuesday, turned violent at times, and law enforcement responded with tear gas and gun pellets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attorney General Tarek William Saab on Tuesday told reporters that more than 700 protesters were arrested\u00a0in nationwide demonstrations\u00a0Monday and that one officer was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal also on Tuesday reported that 11 people, including two minors, had been killed in unrest related to the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Organization of American States was set to gather Wednesday to discuss Venezuela\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maduro\u2019s closest ruling party allies quickly came to his defense. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez \u2014 his chief negotiator in dialogues with the U.S. and the opposition \u2014 insisted Maduro was the indisputable winner and called the opposition violent fascists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Praising the arrests of the protesters, he said Machado should be jailed and so should Gonz\u00e1lez, \u201cbecause he is the leader of the fascist conspiracy that is trying to impose itself in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, speaking from the balcony of the presidential palace, Maduro called Gonz\u00e1lez a coward and challenged him to face him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCome after me!\u201d he yelled. \u201cShow me your face. \u2026 Where are you hiding, mister coward?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Machado and Gonz\u00e1lez urged their supporters to remain calm and avoid violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI ask Venezuelans to continue in peace, demanding that the result be respected and the tally sheets be published,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said on X. \u201cThis victory, which belongs to all of us, will unite us and reconcile us as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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