Guatemala does not recognize Maduro as the winner of the elections in Venezuela.

The president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, stated that his government does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the elected president of Venezuela, while questioning the transparency of the results presented by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of that South American country.

During a press conference on Monday, Arévalo expressed that the results of the presidential elections on July 28 in Venezuela do not meet the "minimum transparency criteria required by a modern democracy."

Guatemala's decision to reject the victory of chavismo aligns with the stance of countries like Ecuador, Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay, and Panama, which consider the opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the elections based on the tally of the results published by the opposition.

Arévalo strongly condemned the repression and violence unleashed by the Venezuelan government against its own people, which has resulted in more than a dozen deaths according to the Foro Penal and around 2,000 arrests according to Venezuelan authorities.

"Our Government strongly condemns the repression and violence unleashed by the Government of Venezuela against its own people," affirmed the Guatemalan president.

Referring to the massive protests against the official election results, he said that no government can be considered legitimate if it stays in power through violence against its population.

The Guatemalan president also reported that he maintains constant communication with regional leaders to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis in the oil-producing nation.

"I am in continuous contact with leaders in the region to discuss solutions in the direction of a democratic exit to the crisis in Venezuela," he emphasized.

The CNE of Venezuela awarded victory to Maduro with 51.95% of the votes compared to 43.18% for González, according to the last report published on Friday. However, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) has released "81% of the electoral records" which, according to them, show that González won by a wide margin of 30 percentage points.

Guatemala had already indicated on August 2 that it did not recognize the official results of the elections. Diplomatic relations with Maduro's government have been suspended since 2020, when both countries decided to close their diplomatic representations.