The United States announces the decision to recognize Edmundo Gonzalez as president-elect of Venezuela, stressing that it has given Nicolas Maduro, who declared himself the winner of the July 28 elections, time to change his position. "Over the past few months we have given Maduro time to show progress, he has come forward and said he won the election, obviously we don't see anything to support that and we see evidence to the contrary," said the spokesperson. of the State Department, Matthew Miller.
Miller then recalled how during these months Washington, "together with other countries in the region and the rest of the world, has asked for the results to be published, but this has not happened". Therefore, since Maduro "has not presented any evidence", the United States believes that it is "appropriate to recognize that Gonzalez not only won the majority of the votes but that, as a consequence of this, he is the president-elect of Venezuela".
Washington's stance "has nothing to do" with the fact that the Biden administration is in its last two months of life, given that Donald Trump will take office in the White House on January 20, the spokesman said. "It has to do with the fact that time has run out to see if the international pressure that four countries plus the US are putting on Maduro could lead to a change in his position - he continued - it has not been so, so now we recognize the facts as we see them". González, who is currently in Spain as a political refugee, was the presidential candidate of the Venezuelan opposition front after the government prevented the candidacy of leader María Corina Machado.
