Voters queue next to Maduro banners outside a polling station during the presidential election on July 28, 2024, in Caracas, Venezuela. President of the country Nicolas Maduro is widely believed to have stolen the election. (Photo by Marcelo Perez del Carpio/Getty Images)
Florida Republicans and Democrats alike blasted the announced results of Venezuela’s presidential election on Monday.
Election authorities in the South American nation said that incumbent Nicolás Maduro has won that contest, but the results are hotly disputed not only by the political opposition in Venezuela but in many capitals around the globe.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. has “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of Venezuelan people. “
Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Screenshot: Florida Channel)
Gov. Ron DeSantis not only criticized the reported outcome of the race, but also the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration for temporarily lifting economic sanctions against the Socialist-led country last year after the Maduro government signed an agreement with the political opposition to work towards free and fair elections.
“This idea that Biden-Harris had that you come in and you relax pressure and sanctions on the Maduro regime — that somehow, the regime would respond by supporting a free and fair election. Well, that crashed and burned, that theory,” he said on Monday during a press gathering in Tampa. “It never should have been tried.”
The Biden administration agreed with the Maduro government in October that in exchange for an agreement to hold a free and fair election in July, the United States would lift oil and gas sanctions in place since 2019.
In the months following that agreement, however, the Maduro government harassed and arrested opposition figures and barred opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado, who overwhelmingly won the primary, from running for office. That prompted the administration in April to reinstate those sanctions, ABC News reported.
“The way that you deal with somebody like Maduro is you tighten the pressure,” DeSantis said Monday. “You make sure to choke off their resources. But what happened was a total sham. There was lot of people who went out that wanted their voice heard, that wanted to see a new direction for Venezuela, and that didn’t happen because you have a corrupt regime, and this is a corrupt regime that has been empowered by Biden and Harris, and their policy there like so many other places in the world has failed.”
South Florida Democrats and Republicans also condemned the election results.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Credit: U.S. Senate Campaign
“Maduro’s post-election repression and post-election refusal to show vote center tallies, along with earlier reported regional results, national exit polls, and mass demonstrations, all contradict Maduro’s claim of victory,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, co-chair of the Congressional Venezuela Democracy Caucus, on X.
Former Miami U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell said on X, “Yesterday’s election proved that Venezuelans are overwhelmingly ready for change and sent a message that they’re done with Maduro’s narco regime — but Maduro proved that this was never a free and fair election. He has stolen the election from the millions who voted, and the United States and allies MUST hold him accountable. Democracy must win.”
FDP Chair Nikki Fried also weighed in, saying the party unequivocally “condemns” the Maduro government’s “attempt to steal the presidential election.”
“Millions of Venezuelans went to the polls yesterday to exercise their right to vote, and any attempt to disrespect their voices is an outrage,” Fried added in her statement. “We’re proud to stand with Venezuelans in Venezuela, Florida, and beyond as they fight for a free democratic society, and we call on President Biden and world leaders to demand transparency and accountability for Maduro and his administration — starting with an internationally supervised recount.”
U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez via U.S. House
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 9, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
Miami Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez said on X that the Maduro regime was “now weaponizing its government to go after opposition leader @MariaCorinaYA in a pathetic attempt to intimidate the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY who have voted for FREEDOM IN Venezuela!”
South Florida Republican Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart also took aim at the Biden-Harris team in a statement he released on Monday.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s reckless and dangerous deal with the Maduro dictatorship to promote these fake elections only propped up the anti-American Maduro regime, and bought it more time,” Diaz-Balart said in a press release.
“The Maduro regime, which is closely allied with anti-American adversaries such as Russia, the People’s Republic of China, and the terrorist states of Iran and Cuba, is a dangerous malign influence in our hemisphere. Just last month, Maduro allowed Russian warships to dock at Venezuelan ports after Russia’s naval exercises with Cuba. Instead of appeasing our enemies and tossing a lifeline to repressive dictatorships, the Biden-Harris Administration should strengthen sanctions and stand in solidarity with those seeking genuinely free and fair elections, respect for human rights, and freedom.”