The U.S. government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as "president-elect" of the South American country on Tuesday, months after President Nicolas Maduro claimed to have won the July election.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Gonzalez in a post on X in which he also demanded "respect for the will" of Venezuelan voters.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has said Gonzalez earned the most votes in the disputed July 28 election but has fallen short of acknowledging him as president-elect.
Venezuela's National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared Maduro the election winner hours after polls closed. Unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts.
But 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.
"We deeply appreciate the recognition of the sovereign will of all Venezuelans," Gonzalez said in a post on X shortly after Blinken's statement on Tuesday. "This gesture honors the desire for change of our people and the civic feat that we carried out together on July 28."
Gonzalez left Venezuela in September for exile in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of the vote tally sheets.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil responded to Blinken's comment with personal attacks.
"In the last days of his government, he should dedicate himself to reflecting on his failures, getting rid of imperial and colonial complexes and going to write the memoirs of how the Bolivarian Revolution made him bite the dust of defeat, just like his predecessors," Gil said of Blinken in a statement, which did not mention election results.
Maduro and electoral authorities have rejected repeated calls from the U.S., the European Union, Colombia, Brazil and other nations to show the detailed vote records that back up the president's reelection.
Swift condemnation of the lack of post-election transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice, whose members are aligned with the ruling party, to audit the results. The high court reaffirmed his victory.
Experts from the United Nations and the U.S.-based Carter Center, which observed the election at the invitation of Maduro's government, determined the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility. The U.N. experts stopped short of validating the opposition's claim to victory but said the faction's voting records published online appear to exhibit all of the original security features.
Earlier in the week, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has friendly relations with Maduro, reversed his support for the July elections, calling the vote a "mistake."
Petro spoke in an interview with Brazilian news outlet Globo News, which released excerpts online that Petro's office shared Tuesday on social media. Petro told the news outlet Monday while visiting Brazil for the G20 summit that he initially was in favor of Venezuela holding the elections, but that he later decided that the vote was not "free."
"I think the elections were a mistake," Petro said. His office did not immediately respond to a request for him to elaborate on the reasons for his change of heart.
Petro, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador — all leftists friendly with Maduro — attempted to make peace as the results came under dispute, but the effort went nowhere.
Venezuela's next presidential term begins on January 10. Maduro has already received an invitation from the ruling party-controlled National Assembly for a swearing-in ceremony.
