“Maduro and his representatives cannot indefinitely suppress the legitimate aspirations of the Venezuelan people and maintain power by force,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press release. “The will of the people and their rights must be respected.”
“We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of those who have been unjustly detained,” the statement continued. “The path forward should be a peaceful, transparent, and inclusive democratic transition process that puts the well-being of Venezuelans at its center.”
Protests broke out across Venezuela after the country’s Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council declared him the winner of the presidential election, despite reporting and polling data—illegal in the country—indicating a landslide victory for his united opposition.
Maduro first secured office in 2013, but many within and outside the country have alleged from the start that the United Socialist Party of Venezuela has effectively ruled as a dictatorship, leading opposition parties to boycott the 2018 election before uniting behind opposition candidate Gonzalez.
Regional leaders, such as Argentinian President Javier Milei, have declared Maduro’s alleged victory a fraud and demanded evidence to support his claim.
Both the Carter Center and the United Nations have declared that the election lacked credibility, with the Carter Center stressing that the election “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic.”
The opposition parties claimed they had obtained 70% of tally sheets showing district-by-district results, all allegedly indicating Gonzalez had won with double the votes Maduro had received, rather than the supposed 51% victory the Electoral Council announced.
