Rio de Janeiro (EFE) – Former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, international advisor to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who informed him that he “will deliver the (electoral) report in Rio de Janeiro in the coming days,” according to diplomatic sources quoted by the newspaper O Globo.
The meeting, which was also attended by the official Jorge Rodriguez, President of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), was held at the Miraflores Presidential Palace and took place in a “friendly atmosphere,” according to the Rio newspaper.
According to the press account, Maduro told Lula’s advisor that his government was at risk of a “coup by the extreme right,” as he had denounced hours earlier at the National Electoral Council.
Brazil wants to verify Maduro’s election through National Electoral Commission meeting minutes
Brazil stressed the importance of electoral transparency through an official statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said that “the principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results.”
The memorandum notes that this last condition is “an indispensable step to achieve transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the outcome of the electoral dispute.”
Lula’s government stressed in the statement that it would not announce the victory attributed to Maduro by the electoral authorities until all the results were known.
Amorim, who has been in Caracas since Friday as an observer for Brazil, said before meeting Maduro that he was “uncomfortable” about the possible lack of “transparency” in the process.
“I don’t necessarily doubt what they say, but the (Venezuela) government said it would save all the minutes” of Maduro’s victory, and “that hasn’t happened yet,” said Amorim, who will be in Venezuela. Capital, at least until Tuesday.
The adviser also plans to meet on Monday with Maria Corina Machado.
Results published by the National Election Commission
The National Electoral Council officially declared Maduro president, after announcing Sunday evening that Chavista, who has been in power since 2013, won the election with 51.2 percent of the vote, the same result he achieved with 80 percent of the ballots counted and more than two million votes remaining to be counted.
Meanwhile, Edmundo González Urrutia received 44.2% of the vote, according to the first and only public report issued by the National Electoral Commission, which did not specify which candidates went to the 2,394,268 unreported votes.
Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas and several other parts of the country on Monday to protest results announced by the National Election Commission, many of which were met with repression by the military.
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