Important Takeaways:
- Venezuela’s former opposition candidate, Edmundo González, on Wednesday said he was coerced into signing a letter effectively recognizing his defeat in July’s presidential election, which electoral authorities claim was won by President Nicolás Maduro.
- The revelation of the letter is the latest strain to the country’s political crisis, which was exacerbated by the disputed election results and González’s recent departure for exile in Spain.
- The document states it was meant to be confidential, but Jorge Rodríguez, head of the National Assembly and Maduro’s chief negotiator, presented it during a nationally televised press conference hours after a local news outlet published parts of it.
- “They showed up with a document that I would have to sign to allow my departure from the country,” González said. “In other words, either I signed or I would face consequences. There were very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and pressure.”
- The opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 80% of the nation’s electronic voting machines and posted them online. González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the voting records showed the former diplomat won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
- González then became the subject of an arrest warrant over an investigation into the publishing of the tally sheets.
- Venezuela’s next presidential term begins Jan. 10 and lasts six years.
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Important Takeaways:
- Venezuela on brink of civil war after BOTH Putin’s pal Maduro & opposition leader declare victory in tinderbox election
- Official results said Maduro, 61, had claimed 51.2 per cent of the vote, while opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, 74, received 44.2 per cent of the vote.
- But the Venezuelan opposition has also claimed victory with their presidential candidate Gonzalez receiving 70 per cent of the vote in their own tabulation.
- Maduro controls the ballot process through cronies and has been accused by the opposition of rigging the vote.
- Marxist Maduro has blasted them back, saying it was the “extreme right” opposition who had committed “fraud”.
- He threatened “justice” for those who challenge the results, telling cheering supporters in Caracas late Sunday night: “They are ugly faces. The gorgeous ones are the people who are here and noble.”
- Maduro also accused, without evidence, foreign enemies of trying to hack the voting system of the South American country.
- But Gonzalez claimed the opposition was kept from scrutinizing results and said they “knew what happened”.
- He said: “All rules and norms were violated to an extent that we were denied seeing most of the ballots.
- The National Electoral Council is yet to release results from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide.
- Long-suffering Venezuelans saw the vote as their best opportunity to end 25 years of socialist one-party rule
- Videos posted to social media on Sunday showed massive queues with claims spreading that voters were blocked from entering polling stations.
- The brave turnout came after Maduro threatened last weekend that electing the opposition would see the country fall into a “bloodbath” and “civil war”.
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