Brazil “cautious” about Maduro election

Celso Amorim, the top advisor for international affairs in Brazil’s federal government, told a journalist on Monday that he is “cautiously” awaiting the results from individual ballot boxes used in yesterday’s presidential election in Venezuela. Multiple countries have contested the official results, which put President Nicolás Maduro ahead of the opposition. “[Venezuela] has given a […]

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Celso Amorim, the top advisor for international affairs in Brazil’s federal government, told a journalist on Monday that he is “cautiously” awaiting the results from individual ballot boxes used in yesterday’s presidential election in Venezuela. Multiple countries have contested the official results, which put President Nicolás Maduro ahead of the opposition.

“[Venezuela] has given a number, but it has to show how it arrived at that number: ballot box per ballot box,” he said. Mr. Amorim is currently in Caracas, where he was sent as Brazil’s official observer for the Venezuelan election.

Moments after Mr. Amorim’s remarks, Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement using similar language. It said that Brazil is waiting for “the publication of data broken down by polling station, an essential step towards the transparency, credibility, and legitimacy of the election results.”

Early on Monday, with 80 percent of ballots counted, officials of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared incumbent President Nicolás Maduro the winner with 51.2 percent of the vote, versus 44.2 percent for his main contestant, former diplomat Edmundo González. 

Shortly after, opposition leader María Corina Machado organized a press conference alongside Mr. González, declaring him to be the real winner. Ms. Machado was supposed to be on the ballot herself after winning the anti-Maduro primary last year, but she was banned from participating (as was her immediate replacement, Corina Yoris).

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.” Mr. Amorim said that Mr. Blinken’s statement was “very prudent.”

Conversely, the governments of China and Russia have already congratulated Mr. Maduro for his supposed win.

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