CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug 7, (AP): Since Venezuela’s disputed presidential election nine days ago, officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant contact with representatives of both Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo González, seeking a solution to the country’s political crisis.
The three nations, whose current leftist presidents are Maduro allies, are holding conversations with both sides, a senior Mexican official who has been part of the discussions told The Associated Press. The official declined to characterize that as formal mediation.
The three countries are recommending that the government and the opposition follow Venezuelan laws and appear before the appropriate institutions to appeal any part of the process, the official said. That recommendation, however, is a tall ask for the opposition, because Venezuela's ruling party controls every aspect of government, including the justice system, and uses it to defeat and repress real and perceived opponents
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the contacts and declined to identify the Venezuelan government and opposition representatives participating in the discussions. The official also would not say whether González’s team has signaled its willingness to formally appeal the results of the July 28 election.
Unlike many other nations that have either recognized Maduro or González as the winner, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have taken a more neutral stance by neither rejecting nor applauding when Venezuela’s electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner at the ballot box.
In a joint statement last week, the three countries called on Venezuela’s electoral body to release tens of thousands of vote tally sheets, considered the ultimate proof of results.
"The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said in their statement.
The Mexican official told the AP that the three have not ruled out an in-person meeting with Maduro.