Brazil, Colombia, Mexico call for institutional solution in Venezuela
The governments of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico issued a joint statement Thursday (Aug. 1) calling for the impasse surrounding the Venezuelan elections to be settled through institutional means. The communiqué also reinforced the position of the three countries that the data on last Sunday’s (Jul. 28) elections should include information on each polling station.
“Controversies over the electoral process must be resolved through institutional means. The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through the impartial verification of the results,” the text reads.
The document was published after a phone call between the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Colombia, Gustavo Petro; and Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The governments of the Latin American countries also said they were keeping a close eye on the vote counting process. “We call on the Venezuelan electoral authorities to move forward expeditiously and publicly disclose the data broken down by polling station,” they said.
Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico also called on all political and social actors to exercise caution and contain their demonstrations and public events to avoid further violence. “Maintaining social peace and protecting human lives must be the priority concerns at this time,” they added.
The heads of state conclude the statement saying they have “absolute respect for the sovereignty of the will of the Venezuelan people,” adding that they are willing to support “the efforts of dialog and the search for agreements that benefit the Venezuelan people.”
Since the National Electoral Council gave victory to Nicolas Maduro last Sunday, the opposition has claimed that the process was fraudulent, and protests have been reported in the country with at least 12 dead, more than a thousand arrested and dozens injured, including over 80 military or police officers, as per data from the government itself and Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal.
The Organization of American States
The joint communiqué comes a day after the three nations failed to endorse the resolution voted on by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS). By one vote, the council rejected the text that demanded the “immediate” publication of the electoral minutes on the results of last Sunday’s election.
The resolution also called for the results to be fully verified in the presence of independent observation organizations “in order to guarantee the transparency, credibility, and legitimacy of the electoral results.”
The Foreign Ministry’s press office explained that, in addition to Venezuela not being a member of the OAS, Brazil decided to abstain because it believes it is Venezuela itself and its laws that should define how the results are verified, and that it is not up to the OAS to define which independent observer organizations should monitor such verification.
