Costa Rican Congress recognizes Gonzalez as president

The Costa Rican Congress approved a motion on Thursday recognizing opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as the president-elect of Venezuela after the elections of July 28 in this country.

In a vote of 43 in favor and 1 against, the Costa Rican legislature expressed that it “formally recognizes Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate president-elect of Venezuela,” while calling on “all democratic parliaments in America” ​​to express themselves in the same way.

Costa Rican lawmakers also expressed their “condemnation of the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela, for remaining in power and for refusing to respect the popular will of the Venezuelan people and, therefore, for violating human rights and the fundamental political rights of citizens.”

The motion also “ignores the fraudulent victory of Nicolás Maduro over his opponent Edmundo González.”

“We Costa Ricans have seen and felt the tragedy of the Venezuelan people who have literally abandoned their country and fled the dictatorship and the poverty it generates,” the motion reads.

The Congress’s statement follows one made by the Costa Rican government on the same day as the Venezuelan elections, when President Rodrigo Chaves claimed that the process had been fraudulent.

On August 2, the Costa Rican government claimed that there was fraud in the elections in Venezuela and that the winner of those elections was opposition candidate Edmundo González.

“It is clear to Costa Rica that Nicolás Maduro did not receive the majority of votes from Venezuelans, so we refute the fraudulent proclamation that he won the elections, it being indisputable that Edmundo González received the majority support of the Venezuelan people,” the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry said that day.

In August, the Costa Rican government also offered political asylum to Edmundo González and opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Since 2020, Costa Rica had suspended its diplomatic relations with Venezuela with the closure of the embassy and the withdrawal of its staff.

In 2019, the Central American nation rejected Maduro’s victory in the presidential elections of that year and gave its recognition to Juan Guaidó.