Boric says he has no doubt that Maduro committed fraud in Venezuela’s elections

Chilean President Gabriel Boric expressed strong doubts about the integrity of the recent Venezuelan elections in statements made on Wednesday.

After a bilateral meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Boric stated that he does not recognize the “self-proclaimed victory” of Nicolás Maduro and suggested that there were attempts at fraud in the electoral process.

“If not [tivessem fraudado]they would have shown the famous minutes. Why didn’t they do that? If they had clearly won, they would have shown the minutes,” Boric said during a press conference at the La Moneda Palace.

He also accused the Venezuelan government of violate human rights and to start criminal prosecutions against opponentspractices that he considered “unacceptable in a democratic country“.

Boric reiterated that he will not validate the election results until they are verified by “independent international organizations“, highlighting his distrust in the “independence nor in the impartiality of the current institutions in Venezuela“.

The statements come after the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela to announce Maduro’s re-election with approximately 51,2% of the vote, a result that Boric classified as “hard to believe“.

On the other hand, President Lula defended dialogue between Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition, referring to a joint note previously released by Brazil, Colombia e Mexicowhich requested the release of electoral documents for transparency in the election.

Tensions have risen with the opening of a criminal investigation by Venezuela’s Public Prosecutor’s Office against María Corina Machado, opposition leader, and Edmundo González Urrutia, opposition candidate in the elections, on charges of falsely announcing an alternative winner in the presidential election.

In response, Maria Corina e González issued an appeal to the Venezuelan military and police to “stand with the people” and cease repression against protesters.

This situation escalated with the repression of demonstrations contesting the election results by security forces, resulting in at least 24 civilians killed and more than 2 thousand deathsaccording to reports from human rights organizations.