White House walks back Biden comment on renewed Venezuelan election

By Eric Martin

The White House on Thursday walked back President Joe Biden’s apparent suggestion that Venezuela hold a new election after the comment prompted questions about the US position on a July vote that it has consistently said Nicolas Maduro’s regime rigged.
 

Biden was asked as he left the White House to board his Marine One helicopter for an afternoon event in Maryland whether he supported new elections in Venezuela, and he responded “I do.”

But the scene was chaotic, with reporters shouting other questions and cast members from the long-running TV drama, The West Wing –- including fictional President Jed Bartlet, otherwise known as the actor Martin Sheen –- on hand.

 

A spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council said Biden intended to speak to the absurdity of Venezuelan President Maduro failing to come clean after claiming victory in the July 28 vote, with data suggesting that opposition candidate Edmundo González prevailed.

“It is abundantly clear that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes,” White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett added in a message posted to social media. “We call for the will of the people to be respected and for discussions to begin on a transition back to democratic norms.”

Responding to Biden’s remarks later Thursday, Maduro said he “completely and absolutely rejects that the US government intends to become the electoral authority of Venezuela or any other place in the world.” 

“They have a lot of problems,” he said, tauntingly, of the US, “let them be left with their problems because here in our homeland we Venezuelans are in charge.”

Biden’s comments echoed some leaders in the region, including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who have suggested the possibility Venezuela could hold fresh elections. That stance was seen as more forgiving than other regional powers like Argentina that have recognized González as president-elect, as well as three weeks of US calls for countries to acknowledge his victory.

Lula on Thursday said that Maduro owes the world an explanation about what happened in Venezuela’s election, and that the ongoing dispute over the outcome has caused relations between Brasilia and Caracas to deteriorate.

Earlier: Lula Warns Maduro Brazil’s Ties With Venezuela Are Worsening

Maduro, the incumbent socialist, says that he defeated his opposition rival by about 1 million votes in the disputed election, the result announced by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council. Maduro earned 52% compared to 43% for González, according to the council’s tabulation of 97% of ballots cast.

But Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was banned from running, has accused Maduro and his allies of fraud. She says her party has compiled results from witnesses and a network of citizen observers that show González, her stand-in candidate, received nearly 70% support.

Maduro has called for Machado and González to be jailed for fomenting protest. He has already arrested 2,400 people, including protesters, and promised to send them to maximum-security prisons for 30 years, the same sentence doled out to murderers.

More than a dozen media workers have been deported, according to the country’s union for journalists.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)