(Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado urged Brazil to throw its weight behind her ally Edmundo González as the nation’s legal president-elect.
Machado made her remarks as improving relations between Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro undermine the opposition’s hopes of overturning the official results of the July election, which is widely regarded as having been stolen.
“Now, more than ever, we need Brazil, its congress, its people, its president,” Machado said Tuesday during a virtual hearing before Brazil’s Lower House. That would put pressure on Maduro to negotiate an “organized transition,” she said.
Relations between the two governments soured after the vote, which Venezuela’s electoral authority say Maduro won. Despite their close ties, Lula refused to acknowledge Maduro as the winner and called for him to release the ballots to prove his supposed victory.
Machado’s remarks come after Venezuela and Brazil’s governments reopened talks following an impasse at the BRICS group Summit, in Kazan, Russia, in October. According to Maduro, Brazil’s vote prevented Venezuela from joining the bloc this year.
In recent weeks, Maduro has publicly supported Lula on at least two occasions, likely indicating better relations.
Maduro has no intention of handing over the voting tallies that Lula had demanded to see, Machado told Brazilian lawmakers.
So far, only the US and Italy have recognized González as Venezuela’s president-elect, but dozens of other countries have said that, according to public records, he won July’s presidential vote. The next presidential term begins January 10, with both Maduro and González saying they will be sworn in.
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