Canada still hasn't recognized the likely winner of Venezuela's election — Venezuelans want to know why

Some Venezuelan-Canadians say the Trudeau government has failed to stand up for democracy in its response to the July 28 Venezuelan presidential election — an election tainted by widespread evidence of fraud and a government campaign of arrests, disappearances and torture of poll workers.

Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia ruled out seeking asylum abroad yesterday after a judge loyal to the Nicolas Maduro regime issued a warrant for his arrest on Monday.

Global Affairs Canada condemned the arrest warrant in a media statement. Gonzalez was still in hiding when this article was published.

According to digitized returns, Gonzalez's unified opposition won the great majority of votes in the election. But his victory has been rejected by the Maduro regime, which claims to have received 51 per cent of the vote. It is backed by Venezuela's courts and its National Election Commission, both packed with hand-picked Maduro loyalists.

While Gonzalez and his partner, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, have refused international protection, they have asked for international recognition.

In a sharp contrast to its attitude during Venezuela's last major contested election, Canada has so far failed to throw its support behind Gonzalez by declaring him the real winner of the election.

Canada was the second country in the world, after the United States, to recognize Juan Guaido when he was declared interim president by the country's elected National Assembly in response to the fraudulent presidential election of 2018.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Gonzalez as the legitimate winner of the election on August 1. Peru did so two days before. Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Panama are among other nations that have said unequivocally that Gonzalez won the election and should take office on January 5, 2025.

"When you have that massive voting supporting one candidate," said Venezuelan-Canadian activist Alessa Polga, "that's proved that our people are not divided. It's very disrespectful of the Government of Canada to ignore those facts.

"If they really support democracies, if they really are — as they said before — on the side of the Venezuelan people, they must recognize Edmundo Gonzalez."

Polga was for years the Canadian coordinator for Vente, Machado's party , and has been active in trying to mobilize support for Edmundo Gonzalez.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called on the Trudeau government to recognize Gonzalez and Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie has introduced a petition in Parliament demanding that the government do so.

Instead, Canada has joined with other countries in expressing "deep rejection of the repression of protesters and the violence that has cost the lives of many Venezuelans in the post-electoral context."

Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has said that in Ottawa's view, "the results claimed by Maduro authorities of this election don't reflect the will of the Venezuelan people." She has spoken to Machado.