Peru will not recognize Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela's "democratically elected president"

Peruvian Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer said that his country will not recognize dictator Nicolás Maduro as elected president of Venezuela if he remains in office after the upcoming Jan. 10, 2025 transition date.

“What I would like to happen on January 10 is that Mr. Maduro hands over power to the true winner of the July 28 elections," Schialer said, referring to the elected opposition candidate and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia, who is seeking asylum in Spain in the face of constant threats from the regime.

He then added, “Until now we are working intensely with friendly countries” so that González assumes power in Venezuela.

Maduro, whom his country's electoral organizations consider the winner, would place himself “outside the legality of his own country” and “his own Constitution” if he is sworn in as president at the start of the new 2025 term.

Peru then “will not be able to recognize him, if he is still in power, as a democratically elected president,” Schialer said in the interview with EFE in Madrid, during his brief visit to Spain.

Last Thursday was the first time Ecuador recognized Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela.

In a published statement on X, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said that “like other members of the international community, we call for the impartial and transparent verification of the electoral results, which has not happened.”

The foreign minister also said that from the perspective of the Ecuadorian government, "democracy demands unconditional respect for the will of the voters and, in this sense, [Ecuador] supports Edmundo González as the legitimate winner of the presidential elections in Venezuela."

Italy and the United States have also issued statements supporting González as the elected president of the South American country and have condemned the brutal repression carried out by the Maduro regime.

González Urrutia has insisted that he remains firm in his intention to return to Venezuela on Jan. 10 to be sworn in as president of the South American country, as mandated by the Constitution.

“My swearing-in will be in the terms of the Constitution in Venezuela, before the legislative bodies that are approved to carry out that swearing-in. Without any doubt,” González said in an interview last week with the La Tarde program on the NTN24 channel.

Machado and González Urrutia denounced the regime for engaging in fraud during the July 28 elections when the Maduro controlled National Electoral Council (CNE), declatred Maduro as the winner without showing the detailed results of the vote.

The opposition claimed González Urrutia's victory, asserting that they had 80% of the copies of the minutes that demonstrated his victory, which were published on a website.