MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Eleven countries in the Americas not to honor Caracas' TSJ ruling

In a separate declaration, Patel said that a ruling “by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Court of Justice has no credibility”

Eleven countries in the Americas issued a statement Friday saying they would not be recognizing Venezuela's Supreme Court (TSJ) ruling declaring Nicolás Maduro the winner of the July 28 elections without producing any of the voting minutes to back up such a claim.

The signatories argued that the TSJ was thus validating “the unsupported results” announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE) and warned that “only an impartial and independent audit of the votes, which evaluates all the records, will guarantee respect for the sovereign popular will and democracy in Venezuela.” In this scenario, the international community would insist “on the respect for the sovereign expression of the Venezuelan people.”

The document also addressed the human rights violations perpetrated by Maduro's regime against people who “peacefully” demand “respect for the vote of the citizens” and the “reestablishment of democracy.”

“Our countries had already expressed their ignorance of the validity of the CNE's declaration, as soon as opposition representatives were denied access to the official count, the minutes were not published and an impartial and independent audit of all of them was subsequently refused. The International Independent Fact-Finding Mission to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has warned about the lack of independence and impartiality of both the CNE and the TSJ. The signing countries reiterate that only an impartial and independent audit of the votes, which evaluates all the minutes, will make it possible to guarantee respect for the sovereign popular will and democracy in Venezuela,” the note from Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay stressed.

In a separate declaration, US State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said that Thursday's ruling “by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Court of Justice has no credibility.” He added that “the voting spreadsheets at a district level, publicly available and independently verified, show that the majority of Venezuelan voters chose Edmundo González” Urrutia.

The TSJ also instructed Attorney General Tarek Willian Saab to investigate opposition leaders for possible crimes disseminating documents challenging the official narrative.

Also Friday, the European Union's (EU) top diplomat Josep Borrell insisted that “we continue to say that this electoral result must be proven and, for the moment, we have not seen any proof.” Hence, the EU does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela until the records are produced and subjected to verification.

“As long as we do not see a result that is verifiable we will not recognize it,” Borrell underlined. “Everyone must be able to verify the result of an election”, something that “has not yet taken place and we have practically given up hope that it will happen,” he went on while explaining that the EU's 27 Member States were trying to establish a position on the matter.