Biden, Lula press Venezuela to publish election tallies
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday they agreed the Venezuelan government must quickly publish the vote tallies of Sunday’s contested election to end the crisis in the oil-producing country.
“The two leaders agreed on the need for immediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data,” the White House said in a statement.
A Brazilian official who listened in to the 30-minute call requested by the White House said Lula insisted that both countries wait for the release of the tallies before taking a final position on the election.
“The conversation showed Brazil and the United States have similar positions that access to the vote tallies is indispensable,” the source said.
In Venezuela, protesters took to streets, waving flags and demanding President Nicolas Maduro acknowledge he lost Sunday’s election to an opposition that claimed it clinched a landslide victory.
In Washington, the Biden administration said electoral manipulation had stripped Maduro’s claim of reelection victory of “any credibility,” and Washington left the door open to fresh sanctions on the OPEC nation.
Venezuela must release vote tallies to “resolve the dispute,” Lula said in an interview with a TV Globo affiliate, adding that if they confirmed Maduro’s victory, that result would have to be recognized.
Yet countless online fascists will proclaim this as “Socialism, Aktually”, since socialism is when you take power from the proletariat, and the more power you take from the proletariat, the more socialist it is.