US reaffirms support for Venezuela’s opposition ‘president-elect’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Monday with the Venezuelan opposition figure whom Washington claims defeated strongman Nicolas Maduro in the widely disputed July presidential election.

Blinken conferred with the exiled candidate Edmundo Urrutia and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado in a show of support, the State Department said.

The call comes less than two weeks before the next Venezuelan presidential term begins on 10 January.

Demonstrations broke out across the oil-rich but troubled country after

Maduro was proclaimed the winner of the 28 July election, despite results published by the opposition showing their candidate won by a landslide.

Only a handful of countries, including Venezuelan ally Russia, have recognised Maduro as the winner.

The United States, while consistently saying that Gonzalez Urrutia had won more votes than Maduro, began referring to him as “president-elect” only in late November.

“Blinken spoke today with President-elect Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado, leaders of Venezuela’s democratic opposition,” the State Department said on Monday.

He “reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to supporting the will of the Venezuelan people as expressed at the ballot box, the peaceful restoration of democracy in Venezuela, and the release of all unjustly detained political prisoners,” it added.

Blinken’s call came as a human rights group reported that Venezuelans jailed following the protests that erupted with Maduro’s disputed re-election endure physical and psychological torture, long stints in isolation, and food crawling with insects.

The protests left 27 dead, 200 injured, and more than 2,400 arrested. Three people have died in prison, according to the report.

Conditions in Venezuelan prisons have worsened since these people were locked up, the activists said.

Maduro, who has led the South American nation since 2013, is accused of leading a harshly repressive leftist regime with a systematic crackdown on the opposition.

His government insists the post-election arrests and jailings were carried out with due process and, in November, started reviews that have led to the release of more than 900 prisoners, including all minors arrested in the post-election unrest.

A group called the Committee of Relatives and Friends of Freedom for Political Prisoners released a report on Monday regarding the prison conditions for these individuals and longer-held detainees, based on accounts from former prisoners.

“Besides being arbitrarily detained and unjustly imprisoned, one must add exponential suffering due to harsh and inhumane prison conditions to which they are subjected,” the report said.

Ex-detainees stated they suffered torture, isolation, and the inability to see relatives or lawyers, the report indicates.

Prisoners have reported being given food that is spoiled, tainted with insects, or undercooked. Portions are tiny, causing weight loss and stomach illnesses, the report said.

In many cases, prisoners’ families take food to them, often having to travel to jails in cities far from their homes.

The opposition, tipped for an easy win in the by-polls, published detailed polling-station-level results that showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning by a landslide.

Protests have largely petered out since September when Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

AFP