Venezuela Opposition Urges Army To Take 'Side Of The People'

Venezuelan opposition leaders Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado on Monday asked the military and police officers to "take the side of the people" after the disputed reelection of Nicolas Maduro.

The opposition alleges Gonzalez Urrutia was the rightful victor of the presidential election on July 28 that has plunged the oil-rich nation into political crisis.

Multiple countries, including the United States and Argentina, have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner, while others, such as the European Union, have stopped short of doing so, while calling for full publication of voting records.

The contested election sparked protests last week that left at least 11 civilians dead, according to rights groups.

"We appeal to the conscience of soldiers and police officers to take the side of the people and their own families," the opposition said in a statement in which they offered "guarantees to those who fulfill their constitutional duty" in a possible "new government."

The statement, which Gonzalez Urrutia signed as "president-elect," also urges the security forces to halt the "repression" of opposition protests.

The government has reported the deaths of two soldiers in the clashes.

The statement said that top commanders were "aligned with Maduro and his vile interests, while you are represented by the people who went out to vote... whose will was expressed on July 28, and you know it."

On Friday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified Maduro's victory with 52 percent of the vote against 43 percent for Gonzalez Urrutia.

The opposition has uploaded voting records onto a website which it claims show that Gonzalez Urrutia won with 67 percent of the vote.

Claiming to be the victim of computer hacking, the CNE, which the opposition accuses of being loyal to Maduro, has still not provided details of the vote on a poll-by-poll basis.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday called for dialogue between the Venezuelan government and opposition to resolve the election dispute.

"A commitment to peace is what leads us to call the parties to dialogue and to promote understanding between the government and the opposition," Lula said during a state visit to Chile, where he met with President Gabriel Boric.

Lula, a Maduro ally engaged in a sensitive balancing act with regards to the crisis, has urged his Venezuelan counterpart to publish voting records to resolve the dispute.

Earlier on Monday he spoke on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"We back the aspiration of the Venezuelan people towards a transparent election. This requirement is at the heart of any democracy," Macron wrote in a social media post after the call.

Macron and Lula "called on the Venezuelan authorities to publish all the voting records of polling stations in order to guarantee the transparency and integrity of the electoral process," the Elysee presidential palace said.