MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Machado: It's best for Maduro to negotiate his way out

The opposition leader would not object to “guarantees and incentives” being offered to help Maduro make up his mind

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado insisted Tuesday that, given the growing international repercussions of the July 28 elections, President Nicolás Maduro should negotiate his departure from office with her political group.

“If Maduro makes a realistic assessment of his options, he will end up understanding that a position of entrenchment with the military high command, and based on repression and lies is simply not sustainable and that it is in his own interest to enter into a negotiation as soon as possible,” Machado said in a virtual press conference.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) said on July 28 that Maduro had been reelected for the 2025-2031 term but never produced the minutes for each voting table to back these allegations. On the other hand, Machado's Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) posted over 80% of these documents on the internet to sustain its claims that Edmundo González Urrutia had prevailed.

In the aftermath of this controversy, protests erupted with Maduro's regime incarcerating over 2,200 demonstrators for whom he refurbished two maximum security prisons.

Machado pointed out that her group was open to a “transition to democracy” for which the July 28 results would be non-negotiable. She also ruled out any shared administration with the Chavistas but admitted “guarantees and incentives” could be on the table.

She also welcomed the diplomatic efforts by Presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), and Gustavo Petro (Colombia) to find a way out of the current stalemate. “In the end, I feel that at least the willingness of not having closed the channel with Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia is a good sign,” Machado reckoned while explaining that her contact in Bogotá was Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo and not Petro.

This week, Murillo spoke with US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and agreed on the importance of publishing the detailed election results, US State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel explained. The official also said Washington hoped the Organization of American States (OAS) would be instrumental in finding a solution to the Venezuelan question. “It is our hope and our goal to use the OAS as a vehicle for” a return to democracy. In Blinken's view, the region should “speak with one voice, including the Organization of American States.” Patel also admitted Tuesday that it was clear that González Urrutia had “obtained the highest number of votes on July 28 and Nicolas Maduro must accept it.”