Chile’s President Boric Claims Maduro Attempted Fraud

Chilean president Gabriel Boric. Photo: Agencia Uno

By El Mostrador

HAVANA TIMES – President Gabriel Boric has hardened his stance on the electoral process in Venezuela, this time denouncing that he has observed an attempted fraud by Nicolas Maduro’s regime to stay in power.

Initially, President Boric had stated that the results of the July 28 election reported by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) “are hard to believe” and that Chile will not validate them unless they are “verifiable.”

Today, he was more critical, stating that he has no doubt “that Maduro’s regime has attempted to commit fraud.”

“Otherwise, they would have shown the (precinct by precinct) records. Why haven’t they done so? If they had clearly won, they would have shown the records,” Boric emphasized, reaffirming his support for the general position of the international community.

While he stressed that Chile does not recognize the “self-proclaimed” victory of Venezuela’s current ruler, he reiterated the thesis that the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González should not be claimed to avoid repeating what happened with Juan Guaido.

“In this, we must learn from past experiences. We cannot, as an international community, make the same mistake that was made at the time with Juan Guaido. And this is understood by the majority of countries,” Boric stated.

“But I want to be clear, Chile does not recognize Maduro’s self-proclaimed victory,” he emphasized. “We do not trust the independence or impartiality of the current institutions in Venezuela, so as a country, we have stated that we will not validate results that have not been verified by international organizations independent of the regime.”

Read more from Chile here on Havana Times.