Vice President Kamala Harris has called on Venezuela’s armed forces to protect the country’s citizens as a political crisis embroils the nation, warning that a militarized response to democratic protests there will “only deepen the crisis” that has unfolded ever since Nicolás Maduro refused to concede power after losing a presidential election last month.
In a letter written to Venezuela’s opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo González last week, the Democratic nominee for president also called on the Venezuelan National Electoral Council to be “held to the highest levels of transparency” and on the international community to apply pressure to the council to publish all polling station-level results from the election.
“I strongly urge the security forces in Venezuela to demonstrate restraint, respect the human rights and freedom of expression of all Venezuelans, and protect the Venezuelan people from political threats and attacks,” Harris wrote in the letter, obtained by McClatchy and the Miami Herald. “Violation of these rights only deepen the crisis and hinder efforts toward a peaceful and democratic transition.”
“We will continue to encourage the parties in Venezuela to begin discussions on a respectful, peaceful handover of power in accordance with Venezuelan electoral law,” she added.
Harris made the comments in light of the efforts of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro to crush protests triggered by the regime’s announcement that he won last month’s presidential election.
That decision has been called by the opposition as an attempt by Maduro to remain in power through another electoral fraud, and insist that Gonzalez was the real winner of the July 28th presidential election.
To demonstrate that claim, the opposition, led by Machado, published the official tallies of more than 80% of the voting stations showing that the opposition candidate defeated Maduro by a margin of more than 2-1.
The electoral council, which is tightly controlled by Maduro, has yet to make public the tallies showing that he was the winner on election day. His regime, meanwhile, has launched a violent crackdown on the protests that has led to the death of at least 25 people and the injuries of dozens others, while some 2,000 others have been arrested.
A White House official told McClatchy that Harris has been intensely involved in the response to the crisis ever since the election.
“The White House, from President Biden and Vice President Harris on down, has been intensely focused on the Venezuelan elections during the weeks leading up to and since the July 28 election,” the official said.
This story was originally published August 23, 2024 3:47 PM.
