(6 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Washington, DC – 6 January 2025
1. Edmundo González, the Venezuelan opposition leader who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro, and others walking out of the White House
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Edmundo González, Venezuelan opposition leader who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro:
"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 here in Washington."
3. Wide of González preparing to address media
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Edmundo González, Venezuelan opposition leader who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro:
"Our teams are in contact with President Trump’s teams. They have been doing so for some time now. We will continue on the same course because our relations are going to be very, very close and very beneficial for the relations between Venezuela and the United States."
5. González leaving
STORYLINE:
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.
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.
“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,” González told reporters, characterizing the talks as “fruitful and cordial.”
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 Monday outside the offices of the Organization of American States.
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.
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. and most European governments have rejected the election’s official results and consider González the legitimate winner.
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.
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.
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.
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