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The United States has recognized Gonzalez as the winner of the Venezuelan presidential election

Caracas, Venezuela: The stakes for Venezuela's electoral authority have risen after the United States on Thursday recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner, with President Nicolas Maduro showing evidence supporting its decision to declare the country's presidential election winner. A much anticipated vote.

The U.S. State Department announcement called for Venezuela's National Electoral Council to release detailed vote counts from several governments, including those close to Maduro's allies, as in past elections.

The electoral body declared Maduro the winner on Monday, but the main opposition coalition revealed hours later that more than two-thirds of the tally sheets printed by each electronic voting machine after the polls closed contained evidence to the contrary.

“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the people of the United States and, more importantly, to the people of Venezuela that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement.

The U.S. government's announcement comes amid growing calls for an independent review of the results and diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release vote tallies from the election, according to Brazilian and Mexican officials.

Government officials in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with Maduro's administration to convince him to show vote tally sheets from Sunday's election and allow fair verification, a Brazilian government official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Officials have told the Venezuelan government that showing the data is the only way to remove any doubt about the results, said the Brazilian official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the diplomatic efforts and requested anonymity.

A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, confirmed the three governments were discussing the issue with Venezuela but did not provide details.

Earlier, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he planned to speak with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro and believed it was important for his government to publicize the electoral applause.

Later on Thursday, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement calling on Venezuelan election officials to “proceed quickly and publicly release” detailed voting data, but they did not confirm any backroom diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro's government to publish the vote. Applause.

“The basic principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through fair verification of results,” they said in a statement.

On Monday, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the election. The government arrested hundreds of protesters and the Venezuela-based human rights group Foro Penal said 11 people were killed. Dozens more were arrested the next day, including a former opposition candidate, Freddy Superlano.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado – who is barred from running for president – and Gonzalez addressed a huge rally of supporters in the capital Caracas on Tuesday, but were not seen in public. Later that day, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, called for their arrest, calling them criminals and fascists.

In an op-ed published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Machado said she was “hiding in fear for my life, my freedom and my countrymen.” She said the opposition had physical evidence that Maduro had lost the election and urged the international community to intervene.

“We voted for Mr. Maduro,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to tolerate or not tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”

Years of government repression pushed opposition leaders into exile. After the op-ed was published, Machado's team told the AP that she was “sheltered.” Machado later posted a video on social media calling for supporters to gather across the country on Saturday.

The Gonzalez campaign had no comment on the op-ed.

On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela's Supreme Court to audit the election, but that request drew almost immediate criticism from foreign observers who said the court was too close to the government to conduct an independent review.

Venezuela's Supreme Court is closely aligned with Maduro's government. Court judges are nominated by federal officials and approved by the National Assembly, which has Maduro sympathizers.

On Thursday, the court accepted Maduro's request for an audit and ordered him, Gonzalez and eight other candidates running for president to appear before judges on Friday.

Gonzalez and Machado say they received more than two-thirds of the tally sheets printed from the electronic voting machines after the polls closed. They said the release of those high-profile data would prove Maduro was gone.

Asked why electoral officials had not released detailed vote counts, Maduro said the National Electoral Council had come under attack, including cyber-attacks, without elaborating.

The presidents of Colombia and Brazil, both close allies of the Venezuelan government, have asked Maduro to release detailed vote counts.

The Brazilian official said the diplomatic efforts are only aimed at promoting dialogue among Venezuelan stakeholders to resolve the disputed election. The official said this includes releasing voting data and allowing independent verification.

López Obrador said he hoped Mexico would respect the will of the Venezuelan people and that there would be no violence. He added that Mexico hopes that “evidence, election results records, will be presented.”

After the election, the pressure on the President is increasing.

The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has not released any results broken by voting machines as in past elections. However, it reported that Maduro received 5.1 million votes, versus Gonzalez's 4.4 million. But Machado, the opposition leader, said the vote count showed Gonzalez received about 6.2 million votes, compared to 2.7 million for Maduro.

Venezuela has the world's largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America's most advanced economy, but it entered free fall in 2013 after Maduro took over. Falling oil prices, widespread shortages and high inflation that rose 130,000 percent led to social unrest and mass protests. immigration

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America's recent history.

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