(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is beginning to refer to Edmundo González Urrutia as Venezuela’s president-elect, a senior administration official said, its strongest acknowledgment yet that the opposition candidate won July’s presidential election.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told partners about the decision in a meeting yesterday at the Group of 20 meetings in Rio de Janeiro, the official said. While the US and other countries have previously concluded that González had more votes than incumbent strongman Nicolás Maduro, the Biden administration hasn’t gone as far as using the term “president-elect” until now.
The move is designed to increase pressure on Maduro, who has claimed he won the election without providing proof. Referring to González as president-elect doesn’t mean that the US will eventually call the opposition figure the “rightful president” after inauguration day Jan. 10, when Maduro expects to be sworn in for a third term. That term was applied unsuccessfully to another opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, in a failed attempt to remove Maduro from power under the previous Trump administration.
Blinken later posted a tacit acknowledgment of the change on X after Bloomberg’s report.
Venezuela Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil called Blinken’s comments “ridiculous” in a statement through the Information Ministry, saying the move creates a “2.0” version of Guaidó.
President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to office in the US on Jan. 20. His nomination to lead the State Department, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, is a long-time hard-liner on Venezuela and the Maduro regime. It will be up to them to decide whether to proceed with a new designation for González and whether to engage with Maduro.
Venezuelan bonds remained on negative ground Tuesday afternoon, holding on to losses posted after the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives approved a bill to toughen sanctions on entities dealing with the Maduro government.
The Biden administration views the international community and Venezuela’s democratic movement led by González as having given Maduro every opportunity to engage in dialogue for peaceful transition that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people, the US official said.
The Biden administration has promoted a more prosperous and secure democratic region and continues to push for a democratic solution as the only path to solve Venezuela economic and humanitarian crisis, the official said.
González, 75, fled to Spain in September, saying he was coerced into signing a letter recognizing Maduro as the election winner. He has said he will return to his country to be sworn in as president, a plan that seems unlikely with Maduro, 61, firmly ensconced in power.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who helped rally support to González after she was barred from running for president herself, remains in hiding and has said she’s still in Venezuela.
(Updates with Venezuela foreign minister’s comments in fourth paragraph)
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