Spain insists on demanding the registers of the votes to recognise the results in Venezuela

The Diplomat The Spanish Government insists on demanding the presentation of the registers of the votes to recognise the results of the elections held on Sunday in Venezuela. Yesterday morning, in an appearance before the Press, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, said that transparency in the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela is "imperative" and stressed that it is necessary to verify "all the registers of all the tables" to recognize the winner of the elections last Sunday. Sánchez said that they are following with concern the events that are taking place and made "a firm call" for calm, civility and the guarantee of the fundamental rights "of all Venezuelans," after eleven people died in the protests against the results announced by the regime of Nicolás Maduro. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, had spoken along the same lines earlier in the morning- He published a message on his account on the social network X, in which he pointed out that the Executive is closely following the situation in Venezuela, and added: “The electoral result must be able to be verified with total transparency. It is necessary to present the minutes to recognise the results.” At the same time, Albares called for “calm, civility and the guarantee of fundamental rights” after the riots in Venezuela in the last few hours, as a result of which at least eleven people have died and more than 1,000 people have been arrested, according to the Venezuelan Prosecutor's Office. Opposition leader María Corina Machado denounced arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances and even murders. For his part, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded, on the same social network, that the safety of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and the opposition candidate for Sunday's elections, Edmundo González Urrutia, be guaranteed, after yesterday the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, in a televised message asked for their prosecution for trying to "take over the country through criminality, violence, manipulation and lies", in cooperation with "US imperialism". The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, wrote on the same social network that "the Venezuelan authorities must put an end to the arrests, repression and violent rhetoric against members of the opposition." And after describing the threats against Corina Machado and Eduardo González Urrutia as "unacceptable," he stated: "Authorities and security forces must guarantee respect for human rights." And the vice-president of the European Parliament and socialist MEP Javi López wrote that "the Maduro regime is trying to hide the truth: an alleged result without legitimacy or credibility, serious indications of fraud and threats to opposition leaders." "Only the delivery of the registers and the transparent aggregation of results will allow the voice of the Venezuelan people to be respected," he emphasized. In Spain, Sumar, Izquierda Unida and Podemos, which had initially asked for the results announced by the Maduro government to be respected, yesterday demanded “the greatest transparency in the counting of the elections.” According to Sumar, that is what they have been asking for from the beginning, although its leader, Yolanda Díaz, had asked for the results to be respected. Yesterday, the coalition decided to join what “institutions such as the Carter Center and the governments of Colombia, Brazil and Chile are asking for.” Specifically, the federal coordinator of IU, Antonio Maíllo, considered the position of the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, to be a "sensible" proposal, after his party issued a statement last Monday in which it asked the Venezuelan opposition to recognise the results. For his part, the secretary of Organisation of Podemos, Pablo Fernández, who demanded the publication of the electoral records, and asked for the cessation of violence, although he denounced that "coup" positions are being heard, which attack every democratic principle, on the part of the "Venezuelan right and also, unfortunately, on the part of the Spanish right". The Carter Centre, specialised in election observation, has concluded that the elections last Sunday in Venezuela lack sufficient electoral integrity and do not comply with international standards, so they "cannot be considered democratic".

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