US calls on Venezuelan government to release specific data on election

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — The United States is calling on the Venezuelan government to “immediately” release specific data regarding its presidential election, citing concerns about the credibility of strongman leader Nicolas Maduro’s victory.

Senior Biden administration officials on Monday said Venezuelan election authorities must release the “detailed precinct level results” from the election. One senior administration official noted that this data is required under Venezuela law and should be immediately available. Another said that if the election results are credible, “then this should be a very simple act and one that they would be able to fulfill quite easily.”

“If there is resistance to providing that additional information, then I think that becomes highly problematic when it comes to the ability of the United States or other members of the international community to judge whether these elections were in fact inclusive and credible,” the second official said.

“Our deepest concern at this juncture is that the analysis and data that we have about this election – which is independent from the National Electoral Council results – is at odds with the results as they were announced by the Venezuelan authorities. And so that discrepancy, in our view, needs to be investigated and addressed before we can close the books on this election,” the second official added.

The officials declined to give specifics on the actions the US or international community would be prepared to take if the Venezuelan authorities do not release the data or if the results are determined to be fraudulent, but they did not rule out sanctions. However, “it is not currently under consideration that we would retroactively alter licenses that have previously been given,” like that of Chevron, the second official said.

The first official said they would begin to have conversations in forums like the Organization of American States (OAS) and the G7 about the “collective way forward.”

“We will continue to assess our sanctions policy towards Venezuela in light of overall US national foreign policy interests, the actions and non-actions that are taken by Maduro and his representatives, and the overall direction of travel as it relates to our broader US bilateral engagement with Venezuela,” the second official said.

The officials defended the sanctions relief given under the Biden administration, suggesting that Sunday’s election would not have taken place as it did without that relief.

“Despite all the problems which we’re discussing now, the fact that Venezuela did in fact hold an election yesterday, which allowed an opposition candidate to be on the ballot and for voting process to unfold only came about as a result of the calibrations that we’ve done with our sanctions policy over the last year,” the second official said. “Now that we are faced with potentially a new scenario, we are going to take that into account as we map forward where we may had with respect to sanctions towards Venezuela.”

The first official argued that Sunday’s election, at which international observers were present, “gives us a tremendous amount of data about the will of Venezuelan voters in the face of a lack of transparency by the Venezuelan (election commission).”

“I would argue that we’re in a much better position now than we were three years ago,” the official said.

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