US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Venezuela’s election infrastructure was built to manipulate elections and that it must be changed as soon as possible before the country can hold valid elections.
Rubio spoke to reporters over the phone, a day after the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, returned to the country for the first time since the capture of then-President Nicoleás Maduro, from the United States in January. Maduro was sent to New York to face trial.
According to a senior US State Department official, talks are currently under way between the provisional government in Caracas and opposition representatives. Washington expects these negotiations to lead to the creation of a new Supreme Court Tributal by the end of this year, while a new electoral council is expected to be formed immediately after that.
I believe that we are making real progress in this regard, Rubio said, warning that any attempts to prevent the process would cause great damage to Venezuela, it transmits Telegrafi.
He reiterated that Maduro’s government had created the electoral system in order to enable manipulation of the results, so according to him, changing this infrastructure is necessary before organising reliable elections.
Rubio’s statements come in a period of political transition in Venezuela, while the interim government and opposition are discussing changes in judicial and electoral institutions. Washington’s expectations for these reforms, however, do not imply that a final agreement has been reached or that a date for new elections has been set. /Telegraphy/