MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Four LatAm countries insist Venezuela's TSJ consolidated fraud

Arévalo de León, Boric, Lacalle, and Peña agreed on calling Maduro a dictator

Four Latin American countries were quick Thursday to voice their disagreement with Venezuela's Supreme Court (TSJ) ratifying incumbent President Nicolás Maduro's alleged win at the July 28 elections despite fraud denunciations by the opposition backed by the Organization of American States (OAS) and a large part of the international community.

Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Guatemala insisted on the idea of fraud while countries ruled by leftwing coalitions such as Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico were yet to announce their position on the matter. These three nations have been trying to broker a solution with Maduro to the ongoing political crisis and the social unrest that led to over 25 deaths and 2,400 detentions.

Issued at Maduro's request, the TSJ's decision came 22 days after the filing for a writ of injunction for which the ten former presidential candidates were summoned to the Supreme Court, although Edmundo González Urrutia -whose Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) claimed to have won with around 67% of the vote- bever showed up.

Although stemming from a leftwing administration, Chile's President Gabriel Boric Font said on X that “today the TSJ of Venezuela finishes consolidating the fraud.” He added that “Maduro's regime obviously welcomes with enthusiasm its sentence that will be marked by infamy. There is no doubt that we are facing a dictatorship that falsifies elections, represses those who think differently, and is indifferent to the largest exile in the world only comparable to that of Syria as a result of a war.”

Uruguay's Luis Lacalle Pou concurred: “Maduro's regime confirms what the international community has been denouncing: fraud. A dictatorship that closes all doors to an institutional and democratic life of its people.” Lacalle also stressed that “we must not be silent or cease in defense of the Venezuelan cause.”

Santiago Peña of Paraguay said the court's decision was “unacceptable” without an “exhaustive and independent” review of the controversial electoral process. He also regretted “deeply the decision of the Venezuelan Government to move forward in the ratification of electoral results that do not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people.”

“It is unacceptable to pretend to validate winners without an exhaustive and independent review of the votes,” insisted Peña, who had previously voiced his opinion that dictators do not leave by the force of votes.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo de León underlined that his country would not recognize the electoral “fraud” perpetrated by Maduro's regime. “The crisis in Venezuela is indisputable, and from Guatemala, we have already said that its recent elections are only a demonstration [that] Maduro's regime is not democratic and we do not recognize its fraud,” he wrote on X as did his Uruguayan and Paraguayan colleagues.