Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez met with President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday, just days before Nicolas Maduro is due to be sworn in for a third term as president of the South American nation.
Gonzalez claims victory in last July’s disputed election, which he says Maduro stole via repression and vote rigging, and is currently trying to rally support to oust the incumbent president by Friday, when by law, the country’s next presidential term begins.
The U.S. president and Gonzalez agreed that the former diplomat’s campaign victory “should be honored through a peaceful transfer back to democratic rule,” according to a White House readout of the meeting.
The pair also expressed serious concerns regarding “Maduro and his representatives’ unacceptable and indiscriminate use of repression against peaceful protesters, democracy activists, and civil society.”
“We had a long, fruitful and cordial conversation with President Biden and his team,” González said.
“We, of course, thanked the United States government for the support it has given us in this fight for democratic recovery in Venezuela. That is a commitment that we take with us and that we will continue to follow until the last day of the president’s government.”
Biden said on social media platform X that the “people of Venezuela deserve a peaceful transfer of power to the true winner of their presidential election,” adding that Gonzalez should be taking the oath of office in four days, not Maduro.
The government in Caracas blasted the meeting, saying it was “grotesque” that Biden was backing a “violent project” to usurp the country’s democracy.
While in Washington, Gonzalez also met with Mike Waltz, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for national security adviser.
“Among various issues that we talked about in detail was the civic protest of Venezuelans this January 9,” Gonzalez wrote of the meeting on X.
“He guaranteed that the United States and the world will be alert about what happens in our country.”
Meanwhile, Maduro has already been invited by the National Assembly to be sworn in for a third six-year term on Friday, just more than five months since the National Electoral Council declared him the winner of the election.
More than 2,000 people were arrested during post-election demonstrations, with opposition leaders, lawyers, activists, journalists, and minors among those detained.
Unlike previous presidential elections in Venezuela, government authorities have not published vote counts, but the opposition has revealed tally sheets from more than 80 percent of the nation’s electronic voting machines and said they showed Gonzalez had won twice as many votes as Maduro.
The Atlanta-based Carter Center, which Maduro’s government invited to observe the election, has declared the tally sheets published by the opposition legitimate.
Washington and most European governments have all said they consider Gonzalez the legitimate winner.
Gonzalez, who represented the Unitary Platform coalition, fled Venezuela for Spain in September after a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of the election’s tally sheets.
Gonzalez has vowed to travel to Venezuela to be sworn in for the presidency but has not explained how he plans to return or remove Maduro, whose party controls all institutions and the military.
When asked on Monday about the opposition leader’s plans to return, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello labeled him a “coward” and accused him of being a CIA asset, without providing any evidence of this assertion.
“He has neither courage nor disposition,“ Cabello said. ”Mr. González Urrutia knows that as soon as he steps in Venezuela, he will be arrested.”
Last week, Caracas announced a $100,000 reward for information on Gonzalez’s whereabouts.
