Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ivan Gil Pinto sharply criticized US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s assertion on X (formerly Twitter) that opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez won the presidential election in the Bolivarian Republic on July 28.
⠀
“Blinken, a recognized enemy of Venezuela, insists on doing it again, this time with Guaido 2.0, supported by fascists and terrorists, subject to the hackneyed US policies,” Gil wrote on November 19 in the Telegram channel, comparing Gonzalez to the US recognized in 2019 year by self-proclaimed President Juan Guaidó.
⠀
“In the last days of his reign, he [Blinken] must reflect on his failures, get rid of imperial and colonial complexes and start writing memoirs about how the Bolivarian Revolution forced him, like his predecessors, to taste the bitterness of defeat,” the Foreign Minister emphasized Venezuela.
⠀
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on November 19 named former Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the country’s president-elect.
⠀
“The people of Venezuela spoke decisively on July 28 and chose Edmundo Gonzalez as their president-elect. Democracy requires respect for the will of the voters,” Blinken argued in an X post.
⠀
On July 28, presidential elections were held in Venezuela, which was won by the current head of state, Nicolas Maduro. 51.95% of voters voted for him, and 43.18% for his main rival Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. One of the leaders of the far-right opposition, Maria Corina Machado, already stated on election day that Gonzalez’s team was not going to admit his defeat in the elections. In turn, Nicolas Maduro said after the elections that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the United States and Western countries consider the winner of the presidential election, was afraid to proclaim himself president of Venezuela.
⠀
Russia, Bolivia, Honduras, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua and a number of other states congratulated Maduro on his victory. Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the USA, Uruguay, and Chile did not recognize the re-election of the current president.
