12 former Latin American foreign ministers say that the Supreme Court’s decision on Maduro’s reelection “is not valid”

A dozen former Latin American foreign ministers said on Monday that the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to support the controversial reelection of Nicolás Madurowhose victory in the presidential elections on July 28 is accused of being fraudulent by the majority opposition, “is not valid.”

In a joint statement, 12 former foreign ministers, including Colombian Maria Angela Holguin, Mexican Jorge Castaneda and Chilean Jose Miguel Insulzathey stated that the Venezuelan TSJ “lacks impartiality and independence.”

And that together with the National Electoral Council (CNE) it has “played a role within the repressive machinery of the State”, therefore, their decision to endorse the electoral results favorable to Maduro “is not valid, in addition to being unconstitutional.”

The former diplomats also asked the Venezuelan regime to “respect popular sovereignty as expressed at the polls” and to publish the disaggregated voting records so that they can be “subjected to independent verification with an international presence.”

I attach a statement recently issued by a group of former Latin American Foreign Ministers, on the situation of #Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/qhWaKrteJw

— Heraldo Muñoz (@HeraldoMunoz) August 26, 2024

TSJ decision on Maduro’s reelection is unconstitutional

This Monday, the CNE reported that it will abide by the “unequivocal” decision of the TSJ and asked the entity to publish in Official Gazette the already announced result of the elections.

The Supreme Court, controlled by pro-Chavez judges, confirmed Maduro’s victory through a judicial expert report, the details of which are unknown and in which representatives of the main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), which denounced fraud, were not invited to participate.

The PUD assures that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutiawon the presidential elections by a wide margin, so it published “83.5% of the electoral records,” collected by witnesses and table members on election day, to reinforce its claim, and asked the CNE, like a good part of the international community, to publish the disaggregated results of the elections, as planned in the schedule.

The TSJ said it had received from the CNE all the records confirming Maduro’s victory and decided to keep this material “safeguarded,” despite the fact that regulations and tradition indicate that the results of the election from each voting center must be published.