Venezuela opposition leader calls on the international community to step up pressure on Maduro
Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado urged that countries recognize Edmundo González as the presidential election's winner and hold government officials accountable for abuses after the vote to keep pressuring Pres. Nicolás Maduro to step down in January.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday vowed to keep the pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to leave office in January.
She also urged the international community to rise to the occasion by immediately recognizing her faction’s presidential candidate as the winner of the election in July, and implement measures to hold government officials accountable for abuses unleashed after the vote.
Machado, speaking to reporters online from an undisclosed location in Venezuela, reaffirmed her commitment to negotiate incentives and guarantees that could lead to a peaceful transition of power.
“We, the Venezuelan people, have done everything,” she said. “We competed with the rules of tyranny ... and we won, and we proved it. So, if the world or some government is thinking of looking the other way, imagine where sovereign will and popular sovereignty end up in the Western world. It would mean that elections are worthless.”
Her comments came three days after the country’s justice system, which is loyal to the ruling party, issued an arrest warrant for former diplomat Edmundo González, who represented the main opposition coalition in the July 28 election.
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