CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Venezuelan opposition leader who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election met Monday with U.S. President Joe Biden just days ahead of Maduro's contested inauguration to a third term.
Biden's White House meeting with Edmundo González, who represented Venezuela’s main opposition coalition in the July presidential election, took place as the retired diplomat tries to rally support for his effort to get Maduro out of office by Friday, when by law, the South American country's next presidential term begins.
Biden and González agreed that González's “campaign victory should be honored through a peaceful transfer back to democratic rule,” according to a White House readout of the meeting. Both men also expressed serious concerns regarding "Maduro and his representatives’ unacceptable and indiscriminate use of repression against peaceful protesters, democracy activists, and civil society.”
González began a tour of the Americas on Saturday with stops in Argentina and Uruguay. His campaign called on Venezuelans living in the Washington area to gather with him Monday outside the offices of the Organization of American States.
Carolina di Martino Popovich waved and cheered in freezing temperatures outside the OAS, accompanied by her daughters Isabella, 1, and Camila, 6, and her mother Petra Gambor. Di Martino Popovich and Gambor are longtime immigrants from Venezuela.
“We drove 10 hours in the snowstorm from Boston, and we made it,” di Martino Popovich said. “That is how much he means to us. We couldn’t vote in Venezuela, but we are here to recognize him as our president.”
Meanwhile, Maduro already has received an invitation from the National Assembly to be sworn in for a third six-year term Friday, more than five months after the National Electoral Council, stacked with ruling-party loyalists, declared him winner of the July 28 election.
More than 2,000 people, including minors, were arrested during nationwide post-election demonstrations. Opposition leaders, lawyers, activists and journalists were among those detained.
Unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts. However, the opposition collected tally sheets from more than 80% of the nation's electronic voting machines, posted them online and said they showed González had won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
The U.S.-based Carter Center, which Maduro's government invited to observe the presidential election, has said the tally sheets published by the opposition are legitimate.
The U.S. and most European governments have rejected the election's official results and consider González the legitimate winner.
“We had a long, fruitful and cordial conversation with President Biden and his team,” González told reporters. “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.”
When asked on Monday about González's plans, Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello insulted the politician, attacked his credibility and threatened him with arrest. He also insisted that Maduro would be sworn in Friday.
“Coward,” Cabello said, referring to the retired diplomat, whom he accused, without offering any proof, of being a CIA agent. “He has neither courage nor disposition... Mr. González Urrutia knows that as soon as he steps in Venezuela, he will be arrested.”
González, who represented the Unitary Platform coalition, left Venezuela for exile in Spain in September after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of the election's tally sheets. Last week, the government announced a $100,000 reward for information on González's whereabouts.
González on Monday also met with Rep. Mike Waltz, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's designate to be his national security adviser once he's sworn in on Jan. 20.
In recent weeks, González has vowed to travel to Venezuela to be sworn in for the presidential term, but he has not explained how he plans to return or wrest power from Maduro, whose party controls all institutions and the military.
On Sunday, González addressed Venezuela's armed forces in a social media video, reminding them that according to the constitution, he “must assume the role of commander in chief” on Friday and that they are "called to be a guarantee of sovereignty and respect for the popular will.”
But Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino on Monday said the armed forces will recognize Maduro as president on Inauguration Day.
“We categorically and with absolute vehemence reject this clownish and buffoonish act of despicable politicking, which will not have the slightest impact on the robust patriotic conscience of the (Venezuelan armed forces),” Padrino said in an address to the nation on state television.
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Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Washington contributed to this report.
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