Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Ottawa to acknowledge Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the victor of the July 28 presidential election in that country—a stance similar to what the United States has taken.
In a
post on X on Aug. 3, Poilievre urged the federal government to “cut off all contacts” with Venezuela’s incumbent President Nicolás Maduro and his cadres, “kick out his diplomats and hit him with brutal sanctions.”
“I am calling on the Canadian government to recognize the opposition won the Venezuelan election,” said Poilievre. His post included an Aug. 2
CNN report titled “US says Maduro lost Venezuela election as opposition leader says she’s in hiding.”
CNN was referring to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who wrote an opinion piece published by
The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 1. Machado claims she “can prove Maduro got trounced.”
“I could be captured as I write these words,” she wrote, while commending her hand-picked presidential candidate González, who “bravely took on this job.” Machado was
banned from running for president in 2023 by the comptroller general of Venezuela.
The Epoch Times sought comment from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office regarding Poilievre’s call but did not immediately hear back.
‘Deeply Flawed’
The United States issued a
press statement on Aug. 1 saying the vote processing and election results announced by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) were “deeply flawed.”
“The CNE still has not published disaggregated data or any of the vote tally sheets, despite repeated calls from Venezuelans and the international community to do so,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the statement.
On July 28, Maduro and González both claimed victory following the election. The next day,
CNE announced that Maduro had won a third six-year term, with 51 percent of the vote, while González received 44 percent. Several exit polls, however, indicated that González was in the lead. Several countries, including the United States, Chile, Peru, Italy, and Canada, have expressed concern over the legitimacy of the results.
In his statement on Aug. 1, Blinken noted that the vote tally sheets received by the opposition coalition indicated that González had won “by an insurmountable margin.” In addition, the United States had consulted widely with international partners and allies on the results, but “none have concluded that Nicolás Maduro received the most votes this election,” the secretary of state said.
“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” Blinken said.
Widespread Protests
Thousands of Venezuelans have
taken to the streets to protest the disputed election results ever since CNE’s announcement on July 29. To date, the Maduro government has arrested hundreds of opposition supporters. The president and his cadres have also threatened to lock up Machado and González.
On Aug. 3, about 300 people similarly gathered in downtown Toronto outside the Ontario legislature to protest and to
demand a stronger response from the federal government.
Rebecca Sarfatti, an organizer in the Toronto Venezuelan community, called the Canadian response “bland” in an interview with The Canadian Press.
She says other countries, such as the United States, consider the election to be “rigged,” adding that Canada must say whether it thinks Maduro is a dictator.
Canada’s relationship with Venezuela has been tense since the 2019 electoral crisis, which saw that country’s legislature, the National Assembly,
declare Maduro an illegitimate president and swear in Juan Guaidó as interim president.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who was foreign affairs minister at the time, released a
statement on Jan. 23, 2019, endorsing Guaidó as leader and rejecting Maduro’s “illegitimate claim to power.”
On July 29 this year, Freeland said in a press conference that Ottawa has “serious concerns” about Venezuela’s election results. She expressed support for Venezuelans fighting for democracy under an “increasingly severe authoritarian regime.”
‘Maximum Restraint’
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly
wrote on X on July 31 that she remained “deeply concerned” about reports of violence in Venezuela and “information presented by observers raising significant concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.”
On the same day, Joly issued a
joint statement with her G7 counterparts calling for “full transparency” of the election results.
“We call on relevant representatives to publish the detailed electoral results in full transparency, and we ask electoral representatives to immediately share all information with the opposition and independent observers,” the July 1 statement said.
While the joint statement has called for “maximum restraint” in Venezuela and “for a peaceful, democratic and Venezuelan-led solution,” Maduro in a televised address on Aug. 1
threatened that he “won’t hesitate” to start a “new revolution” if the pressure for his government to release voting data continues.
The Canadian government has sanctioned 113 Venezuelan officials since 2017, and in collaboration with several countries has referred the situation in Venezuela to the International Criminal Court.
On June 2, 2019, Ottawa
announced that Canadian diplomats in Venezuela will no longer be able to obtain diplomatic accreditation under the Maduro regime when their visas expire at the end of the month, and thus the Embassy of Canada to Venezuela would temporarily suspend operations effective immediately.
Matthew Horwood, The Associated Press and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
