Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the US government and South African business magnate Elon Musk of attempting to orchestrate a coup in the country. This accusation comes after Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner of the country’s presidential election, with 80% of ballots counted showing him securing more than 51% of the vote, compared to main rival Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia who secured around 44. However, Gonzalez’s western supporters, including Musk, rushed to accuse Maduro and the CNE of election fraud. The US government took it a step further by officially recognizing Gonzalez as the winner of the election, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating that it was clear from the “overwhelming evidence” that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had won the most votes in the election.
Maduro responded to these accusations at a press conference in Caracas by lambasting Blinken for his attempts to “declare” the results of another country’s election, referring to it as an act of “despair” and “a gesture uncharacteristic of US diplomacy. He went on to accuse the western world, particularly the United States government, Elon Musk, and Argentine President Javier Milei, of attempting to destabilize Venezuela.
Earlier, during a broadcasted address, Maduro had issued a personal challenge to Musk to fight him. Venezuelan authorities confirmed Maduro’s election victory after the final ballot count revealed he had secured 52% of the vote, compared to Gonzalez’s 43. However, the opposition along with the governments of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico have called for a detailed vote count to be made public as proof of Maduro’s win. Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay joined the US in rejecting the official election results and recognizing Gonzalez as Venezuela’s legitimate president instead of Maduro.
Russia accepted the official election results, with President Vladimir Putin congratulating Maduro earlier this week on winning another term. The newly reelected Maduro will serve a third consecutive six-year term, after first taking office in 2013 following the death of late President Hugo Chavez. His previous reelection in 2018 was also rejected by the US, along with several Latin American states and the EU.