Q REPORTS (EFE) The Costa Rican government on Friday rejected the “illegitimate” inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for a third consecutive term in Venezuela and accused him of applying “state terror against his people.”
“The Costa Rican government rejects in the strongest possible terms the illegitimate act of inauguration through which Nicolás Maduro intends to perpetuate himself in power based on persecution, the improper use of electoral and judicial means, and state terror against his people, especially against opposition leaders,” said a statement from the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry.
The text adds that “this new parody organized by the Maduro regime is an affront to the people of Venezuela, in particular to the millions of Venezuelans who voted peacefully and massively in favor of a democratic change, supporting Edmundo González Urrutia by an overwhelming majority.”
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On July 28, the opposition leader Edmundo González faced Nicolás Maduro at the polls, in a presidential election that the opposition bloc claims to have won, according to the minutes it claims to have collected, but the Venezuelan National Electoral Council, controlled by the government, declared the victory of the Chavista leader.
González Urrutia said this Friday in a message on social networks that he is “very close to Venezuela,” “ready for safe entry,” and stressed that Nicolás Maduro “consummates a coup d’état and proclaims himself dictator” today, when he was sworn in as president by the National Assembly controlled by Chavismo.
In its statement on Friday, the Costa Rican government reiterated its recognition of Edmundo González as the winner of the elections last July and asked the international community to “continue working for a democratic solution to the Venezuelan crisis.”
“The only person who has the legitimacy obtained at the polls to assume the Presidency of Venezuela is precisely Edmundo González, so we call on all democratic countries not to validate the electoral fraud and the illegitimate and anti-democratic re-election of Nicolás Maduro,” the official statement said.
The Costa Rican government urged the international community to “continue working for a democratic solution to the Venezuelan crisis, led by the Venezuelan people, and to put an end to this regrettable period of oppression and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
On the same day of the elections in Venezuela, the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, assured that it had been a fraudulent process.
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Last August, Costa Rica offered political asylum to Edmundo González and opposition leader María Corina Machado, who were grateful for the gesture but did not accept the asylum.
Since 2020, Costa Rica has suspended its diplomatic relations with Venezuela with the closure of the embassy and the withdrawal of its staff.
In 2019, Costa Rica rejected Maduro’s victory in the presidential elections that year and gave its recognition to Juan Guaidó.
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