Brazil, Colombia and Mexico in talks with Venezuelan government and opposition on election crisis

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Since Venezuela’s disputed presidential election nine days ago, officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant contact with representatives of both Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo González, seeking a solution to the country’s political crisis.

The three nations, whose current leftist presidents are Maduro allies, are holding conversations with both sides, a senior Mexican official who has been part of the discussions told The Associated Press. The official declined to characterize that as formal mediation.

The three countries are recommending that the government and the opposition follow Venezuelan laws and appear before the appropriate institutions to appeal any part of the process, the official said. That recommendation, however, is a tall ask for the opposition, because Venezuela's ruling party controls every aspect of government, including the justice system, and uses it to defeat and repress real and perceived opponents

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the contacts and declined to identify the Venezuelan government and opposition representatives participating in the discussions. The official also would not say whether González’s team has signaled its willingness to formally appeal the results of the July 28 election.

Unlike many other nations that have either recognized Maduro or González as the winner, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have taken a more neutral stance by neither rejecting nor applauding when Venezuela’s electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner at the ballot box.

In a joint statement last week, the three countries called on Venezuela’s electoral body to release tens of thousands of vote tally sheets, considered the ultimate proof of results.

“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said in their statement.

The Mexican official told the AP that the three have not ruled out an in-person meeting with Maduro.

Millions of Venezuelans headed to the polls on July 28 — some even held vigil at their voting center — for the highly anticipated election that by all accounts was the toughest electoral challenge Maduro and his ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela had faced in decades. The National Electoral Council then proclaimed Maduro the winner without releasing any detailed figures as it had done in the past.

Roughly 12 hours after results were announced, thousands of Venezuelans across the country took to the streets to protest the results and were met with brutal government repression.

The electoral council says Maduro had earned 6.4 million votes while González, who represented the Unitary Platform opposition coalition, garnered 5.3 million. But González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado stunned Venezuelans when they revealed they had obtained more than 80% of the vote tally sheets issued by every electronic voting machine after polls closed, and asserted that Maduro had been defeated by a 2-to-1 margin.

Following the revelations, Maduro asked Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice to conduct an audit of the presidential election, but his move immediately drew criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.

The court’s justices are proposed by federal officials and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.

When the tribunal summoned all 10 candidates who appeared on the ballot for a hearing last Friday, only González failed to show up. The court on Monday ordered him to appear at another hearing on Wednesday.

Machado, in a recorded audio message to Venezuelans on social media on Tuesday said the opposition successfully secured the tally sheets “without the regime noticing.” She also reminded supporters that their joint effort to unseat Maduro “has many phases” and does not require people to “always be in the streets.”

“There are times to go out, times to meet, and thus demonstrate all our strength and determination and embrace each other, just as there are times to prepare, to organize, to communicate and to consult with our allies around the world, which are many," she said. “An operational pause is sometimes necessary to ensure that all the elements of the strategy are aligned and ready for action.”

Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo on Tuesday told reporters he hopes the three governments will be able to publicly discuss any progress in the conversations with Venezuelan stakeholders either later this week or next week. He added the discussions among officials are not happening under deadline.

"Venezuela has its own dynamics and that is what will condition certain times,” Murillo said.

Meanwhile, two Brazilian officials told the AP that Lula, Petro and López are coordinating closely on this issue. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the discussions.

One of the officials on Tuesday summed up the magnitude of the challenge: “no leader alone will be enough to handle this crisis.”

Also on Tuesday, the United States government reiterated its call on Maduro and his representatives to recognize the election results favoring González. Mark Wells, acting assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs, told reporters the administration of President Joe Biden has examined evidence shared by the opposition and has determined that “it would be almost impossible to falsify" the tally sheets.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Wells said. “The real result of the election is clear and the world can see it. Edmundo González got the majority of the votes.”

He added that the U.S. government continues to work with other countries to promote transparency and ensure that the people’s votes are counted. He also praised the joint effort by Colombia, Mexico and Brazil but declined to offer any details or say whether the U.S. is currently in talks with Maduro.

A day earlier, Venezuela’s top prosecutor announced a criminal investigation against González and Machado over a statement they issued calling on the armed forces to abandon their support for Maduro and to stop repressing demonstrators.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that both of them “falsely announced a winner of the presidential election other than the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Council, the only body qualified to do so," and that they openly incited “police and military officials to disobey the laws.”

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Castillo reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Astrid Suarez in Bogota, Colombia, Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this report.

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