Biden-Harris administration denies any ‘offers of amnesty’ to Maduro since the election
It did so in relation to a Wall Street Journal which maintained that there were negotiations between the White House and the Venezuelan regime for a democratic and peaceful transition of power in the country.
Demonstration in favor of the Venezuelan opposition.
The Biden-Harris administration denied Monday that it had offered amnesty to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in exchange for him ceding power following the disputed July 28 elections in the South American country, a State Department spokesman in Washington said.
"We’ve not made any offers of amnesty to Maduro or others since this election," Vedant Patel told reporters in response to an article in The Wall Street Journal that reported a proposal to pardon Maduro and his collaborators who face accusations of falsifying the results of the presidential election.
Washington "is considering a range of options to pressure Maduro to return Venezuela to a democratic path and will continue to do so, but the responsibility is on Maduro and Venezuela’s electoral authorities to come clean on the election results," Patel added.
Amnesty in exchange for ceding power
The alleged offer reported by the WSJ is in line with the stance of the Venezuelan opposition, willing to include guarantees for the leaders of the dictatorship in negotiations for the transfer of power after the July 28 election results that the regime continues to deny. The indispensable condition would be the respect for a peaceful transition by Venezuelan authorities.
The Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of the presidential election with 52% of the votes against 43% for the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.
But the body, loyal to Maduro's regime, has so far not published the tally sheets alleging that the automated voting system had been hacked on election night.
The opposition, meanwhile, claims that González Urrutia won the elections with 67% of the votes and compiled on a website copies of more than 80% of the scanned voting records. Several analyses and international monitoring organizations support the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia.
The United States, as well as much of the international community, calls on the Maduro regime to publish the voting records to clear up suspicions of fraud. The government of Joe Biden considers that the data presented by the opposition is valid and that it proves the opposition victory.
Meanwhile, the opposition has called for a series of massive demonstrations throughout Venezuela. Maduro's regime has cracked down hard on protests led by opposition leader María Corina Machado. Violent deaths in the demonstrations number at least two dozen.
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