The United States formally recognizes Edmundo González as president-elect of Venezuela

The United States has recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect ofVenezuela. Gonzalez, a 75-year-old career diplomat, won his country's elections in late July, but dictator Nicolas Maduro was unwilling to recognize the results, much less hand over power, which he has held since 2014.

Almost four months after the elections, the Biden Administration officially recognized Gonzalez as president-elect of his country. The one in charge of doing so was the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who did so through his X account.

"The Venezuelan people spoke resoundingly on July 28 and made Edmundo Gonzalez president-elect. Democracy demands respect for the will of the voters," he wrote.

So far, the White House had criticized Maduro's regime for the lack of transparency of the electoral process, as well as recognized Gonzalez as the winner of the elections. However, they had not yet referred to the Venezuelan as "president-elect".

The European Union did the same in September of this year through a resolution voted in the European Parliament, which had 309 votes in favor, 201 against and 12 abstentions.

In addition to recognizing Gonzalez as president-elect, the resolution "energetically condemns and fully rejects the electoral fraud orchestrated by the regime-controlled National Electoral Council, which refused to make the official result public."

Will Marco Rubio be able to save Venezuela from the Maduro regime?

Marco Rubio, the current senator and Donald Trump's nominee to be Secretary of State, is one of the most emphatic members of Congress when it comes to criticizing the Maduro regime.

Indeed, he led a joint statement by some senators to highlight the fraud of the Venezuelan elections in July, in which Gonzalez received more than 60% of the votes but Maduro published completely different numbers, which placed him as the winner.

"To no one's surprise, dictator Nicolas Maduro has once again stolen a presidential election. However, what the narco-regime will never steal is the desire of the Venezuelan people to return to living in democracy and freedom after decades of tyranny. We must prioritize uniting the free world to reject these false election results and achieve the release of the more than 300 Venezuelans who remain arbitrarily detained in torture centers as political prisoners," said Rubio in July.

María Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition, celebrated Rubio's election via a statement.

"I believe that few people understand so well, not only the threats that this regime represents for the United States and the region, (but) where the vulnerabilities of this system are. (...) His experience in intelligence and security issues, I believe, provide him with a vision that goes beyond the strictly diplomatic or migratory or energy issues, which are also linked to Venezuela," she wrote.