US, Venezuelan opposition press Maduro to concede

What happened

The Biden administration has offered Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro amnesty in exchange for giving up power as "overwhelming evidence emerges" he lost last month's election, The Wall Street Journal said Sunday. Official ballot tallies collected by the opposition show that its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia beat Maduro in a landslide in the July 28 election. 

Maduro, whose loyalist-stacked electoral commission declared him the winner without releasing required evidence, has cracked down on dissent, arresting opposition party officials and trying to stop Venezuelans from getting information through WhatsApp and X.

Who said what

The White House has put "everything on the table" in secret negotiations to persuade Maduro to step down, a person familiar with the talks told the Journal. "International action may be the only avenue to force out Maduro," and the U.S. attempt to offer him a "face-saving option dovetails with the opposition's strategy," the outlet said. But the Venezuelan leader's "total grip on power stacks the odds against the Biden administration" and other Latin American countries trying to resolve the standoff.

"Don't mess with Venezuela's internal affairs," Maduro said to the U.S. in a news conference Friday. A National Security Council spokesperson told the Journal the U.S. was "considering a range of options to incentivize and pressure Maduro to recognize the election results," but "the responsibility is on Maduro and Venezuela's electoral authorities to come clean" on the legitimate vote tally.

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What next?

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Sunday called for August 17 to be an international day of protest "to support our victory and recognize truth and popular sovereignty." The U.S. and opposition have "five months before Venezuela's presidential inauguration to pull off a deal," the Journal said.