The U.S. Issues Contradictory Statements on Venezuela's Election

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as the president-elect of Venezuela

Photo by Michael on Unsplash

Just one day after the Organization of American States (OAS) failed to pass a resolution against Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. Department of State (State), through a statement on Thursday from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is recognizing, without publicly available evidence, Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of last week’s presidential election in Venezuela.

“We congratulate Edmundo González Urrutia on his successful campaign. Now is the time for the Venezuelan parties to begin discussions on a respectful, peaceful transition in accordance with Venezuelan electoral law and the wishes of the Venezuelan people,” Department of State Secretary Antony Blinken

However, minutes before Blinken’s seemingly hasty declaration, State’s Spokesperson Matt Miller issued a separate and contradictory media note released by the G7 seeking a resolution to the election by asking the Venezuelan government to share all relevant information surrounding the election with independent and opposition observers.

“We call on relevant representatives to publish the detailed electoral results in full transparency and we ask electoral representatives to immediately share all information with the opposition and independent observers. As the process unfolds, we call for maximum restraint in the country and for a peaceful, democratic, and Venezuelan-led solution,” Office of the Department of State Spokesperson Matt Miller

Miller’s statement is void of any declarations and sends a message of seeking a diplomatic solution while Blinken’s statement seemingly lays the groundwork for foreign intervention. The declaration by Blinken only cites opposition statements without citing any proof or holding the opposition to the same standard as they are setting for Maduro.

“Meanwhile, the democratic opposition has published more than 80 percent of the tally sheets received directly from polling stations throughout Venezuela.  Those tally sheets indicate that Edmundo González Urrutia received the most votes in this election by an insurmountable margin,” said Blinken.

As Blinken repeats the Venezuelan opposition’s words almost verbatim, obvious questions need to be asked.

• Why hasn’t the opposition publicly released data to prove it was a fraudulent election?

• Why haven’t independent observers publicly verified opposition claims of fraud?

• Why haven’t observers (or the U.S.) asked the opposition to publicly release their data?

At this juncture, we find ourselves questioning everything about Venezuela’s election, and we should. The opposition along with its U.S.-backed machine has only muddied the waters even more. Screaming about winning an election and fraud (Trump did both) doesn’t make any of it true—we in the U.S. know this all too well as we are still going through it. As most of us know by now, the exit poll many on social media based their stolen election claims on was flawed.

In addition, the opposition’s rhetoric before the election is identical to what they’re saying now. They claimed they would win in a landslide with 80% of the vote and if they didn’t it would be because of fraud. Despite their launching of a website with only 70-80% of the voter data, as of this writing, it has not been made available to the public for scrutiny.

Over the weekend State spokesperson Miller issued a statement summarizing a call Blinken had with presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and the leader of the opposition party María Corina Machado saying in part, “The Secretary expressed his concern for their safety and well-being following the election and condemned all political violence and repression,” as he again congratulated González Urrutia for winning the election.

This is the same opposition behind multiple coup attempts in recent years.

Anyone paying attention to our history knows that State and many federal agencies can not be trusted especially when it comes to foreign intervention. While Iraq and Afghanistan are still fresh on our minds, so are U.S.-led coups and interventions in Latin America. The idea that the U.S. typically only supports far-right dictators in those countries is also fresh.

Instability breeds corruption in foreign affairs. The U.S. has mastered the art of doing it well, allowing its corporate interests to have their way with other countries' resources and wealth. Just a few years ago the West stole $2 billion in gold and handed it over to Juan Guaido along with control of Citgo Petroleum. In 2019, the Department of State recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s president despite him never running for the position.

Now, he’s universally hated in Venezuela as he lives the millionaire lifestyle in Miami.

The truth is, Western powers find themselves in an energy pinch while trying to isolate Russia even further than the country already is and Venezuela has over 300 billion barrels of crude oil reserves. If the West can seize that oil, it provides a two-fold weapon for the imperialist ambitions of the United States. It’s a solution that would lower global prices while also providing the West access to the energy it needs. Both of those leave Russia isolated on a global scale.

On Saturday, the Associated Press released a report on the data provided by the opposition saying, “The AP could not independently verify the authenticity of the 24,532 tally sheets provided by the opposition. The AP successfully extracted data from 96% of the provided vote tallies, with the remaining 4% of images too poor to parse.”

This is the crux of the problem. Both sides claim victory, but neither has provided evidence that can be scrutinized or verified by public institutions. To say it’s shady is to be nice about it.

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I’m a freelance writer and journalist for The Antagonist Magazine and Unicorn Riot. Find me on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work become a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp