Venezuela’s Machado calls on the international community to step up the pressure on Maduro

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is vowing to keep the pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to leave office in January

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday vowed to keep the pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to leave office in January.

She also urged the international community to rise to the occasion by immediately recognizing her faction’s presidential candidate as the winner of the election in July, and implement measures to hold government officials accountable for abuses unleashed after the vote.

Ms. Machado, speaking to reporters online from an undisclosed location in Venezuela, reaffirmed her commitment to negotiate incentives and guarantees that could lead to a peaceful transition of power.

“We, the Venezuelan people, have done everything,” she said. “We competed with the rules of tyranny ... and we won, and we proved it. So, if the world or some government is thinking of looking the other way, imagine where sovereign will and popular sovereignty end up in the Western world. It would mean that elections are worthless.”

Her comments came three days after the country’s justice system, which is loyal to the ruling party, issued an arrest warrant for former diplomat Edmundo González, who represented the main opposition coalition in the July 28 election.

While the National Electoral Council — stacked with ruling party supporters — declared Mr. Maduro the winner, it never released vote tallies backing their claim. However, the opposition coalition claimed that González defeated Mr. Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin and offered as proof vote tallies from more than 80% of the electronic voting machines used in the election.

Thousands of people, including minors, took to the streets across Venezuela hours after the electoral council's announcement. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, the late leader Hugo Chávez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.