MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's new government does not recognize Maduro or González Urrutia in Venezuela

Under Orsi, Uruguay recognizes neither Maduro nor González Urrutia and now has “an objective problem” to resolve, Lubetkin explained

Under the Broad Front (Frente Amplio - FA) presidency of Yamandú Orsi, Uruguay will no longer recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as winner of the controversial July 28 elections, where the incumbent Nicolás Maduro emerged triumphant amid fraud allegations. Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin also underlined that Montevideo did not recognize Maduro either.

“We do not recognize either Maduro or the president who claimed to have triumphed according to the minutes he showed on the Internet,” Lubetkin said. ”If the Oslo peace agreements (of 1993, between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO) exist, why can't those of Montevideo (on Venezuela) exist?“ he added.

The departing Multicolor coalition government of Luis Lacalle Pou had instead recognized the retired diplomat as president-elect, who visited the Uruguayan capital as such on Jan. 4.

Lubetkin also admitted Uruguay had a diplomatic problem there. The fact that Montevideo does not recognize the elections' outcome does not change, but ”relations between Uruguay and Venezuela are at zero, embassies are almost closed. What do we do with the thousands of Uruguayans who are in Venezuela? Who protects them? Someone asked me if this means the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, and my answer is no.“

In Lubetkin's view, the situation in Venezuela is ”ambiguous“. He acknowledged that in Venezuela ”there is a precise control of the management of the State, of the economy“ but ”that does not mean recognition“. Lubetkin added that Uruguay was not ”the only country that has this position.“

Asked if Maduro was a dictator, Lubetkin replied that President Orsi had ”effectively raised the concept of dictatorship and that we cannot recognize a democratic reality when the electoral process did not live up to the guarantees that a democratic state can give us.“

”We do not recognize it, but we have to solve an objective problem we have, and we have to find the formulas,“ he also pointed out.

Former Defense Minister and current Senator Javier García recalled that Orsi had indeed called Maduro a ”dictator” during his presidential campaign but was legitimizing the Bolivarian regime 48 hours after his inauguration. Many opposition leaders criticized Orsi for this decision.