CARACAS, Venezuela — Several countries, including the United States and some Latin American nations, cast doubt on the results of Venezuela’s presidential election on Monday and called for transparency in the vote count after President Nicolas Maduro’s electoral commission declared him the winner.
“We have serious concerns that the results announced do not reflect the will and vote of the Venezuelan people,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tokyo on Monday. He called on election authorities to release a “detailed tally” of the vote, adding that “the international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly.”
Some Latin American countries, including Colombia, a close ally of Maduro, expressed skepticism about the results, as did Spain, Italy and other European countries. Russia, China, Iran and Cuba congratulated Maduro.
Venezuela’s pro-government electoral commission announced early Monday that Maduro had won 51 percent of the vote, with opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez getting 44 percent, after partial results were counted, though independent surveys suggested Gonzalez received twice as many votes as Maduro. Maduro, an authoritarian socialist, has been in power since 2013 and many blame him for the collapse of oil-rich Venezuela’s economy and the exodus of millions of people, including hundreds of thousands to the United States.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the country’s July 29 election, which the opposition dismissed as fraudulent. (Video: Julie Yun/The Washington Post)
Gonzalez also declared victory late Sunday, saying “the results are undeniable. The country has chosen peaceful change.”
“What is happening in our country is a huge social movement that they cannot stop,” Maria Corina Machado, a driving force behind Venezuela’s opposition movement, said at a press conference early Monday. “We are a civil peace movement and we will continue to work until the truth prevails. And the truth will prevail.”
As the election approached, Maduro’s government barred Machado, Venezuela’s most popular politician, from running, arrested campaign workers and denied opposition access to state media. There were reports Sunday of delays, violence and blocked entry to some polling stations.
Maduro’s claim of victory in Sunday’s election risks further isolating him on the international stage. In 2018, he claimed victory amid allegations of fraud, sparking global condemnation and mass protests at home.
In a statement early Monday, Maduro claimed without evidence that the delay in releasing the full results of Sunday’s election was because the electoral commission was hacked by an unnamed country. “The devil, the evil spirits, did not want the totals to be counted,” Maduro said.
Latin American leaders from across the political spectrum questioned the results.
Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo called for an independent verification and audit of the vote tally “as soon as possible.”
Center-left President Gabriel Boric called the official results “hard to believe” and demanded that independent international monitors be allowed to see the full results. “Chile will not accept results that cannot be verified,” he wrote on Twitter early Monday.
Meanwhile, politically, Argentine President Javier Milley also refused to acknowledge the “fraud,” posting on Twitter that “the Venezuelan people have chosen to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.” The South American far-right leader called on the Venezuelan military to “protect democracy and the will of the people.”
Peruvian Foreign Minister Javier Gonzalez Olaechea accused the Maduro regime of “deceptive intent” and recalled his country’s ambassador to Venezuela for consultations. “Peru will not tolerate the violation of the popular will of the Venezuelan people,” he said on Twitter.
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay also called for a transparent vote count with independent observers.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s allies Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Bolivia and Honduras sent messages of congratulations to President Maduro on the announced election results.
President Vladimir Putin congratulated Maduro after the Russian ambassador to Caracas called the electoral commission’s vote tally “trustworthy.” “Remember, you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil,” Putin said in a message to Maduro.
China’s Foreign Ministry congratulated Maduro and Venezuela on the “successful” elections. “China and Venezuela are good friends and mutually supportive partners,” Chinese state media quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian as saying at a news conference.
Cuba’s foreign ministry said Raul Castro, the country’s former communist leader and brother of the late Fidel Castro, had called Maduro to offer his congratulations.
On Sunday, voters waited in line for more than six hours to cast their ballot at a polling station in Caracas’s Chacao district, chanting, “I want to vote!” A Washington Post reporter witnessed a mob of hooded Maduro supporters punching and kicking people outside a polling station in Caracas who complained they had been denied access to the vote count.
New Jersey-based Edison Research interviewed more than 6,800 voters at 100 locations in exit polls after polls began closing on Sunday, finding that Gonzalez outperformed Maduro among both men and women, rural, suburban and urban voters and all age groups.
Sands reported from London. Christian Sheppard in Taipei, Taiwan, and Natalia Abakumova in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.