Brazil, Colombia and the United States today called for new presidential elections to be held in Venezuela in order to get the country out of the crisis that broke out with the disputed re-election to the presidency of the socialist Nicolas Maduro.

The opposition, which has declared victory in the July 28 election, called the calls “disrespectful” to Venezuelans.

If the Nicolas Maduro “He has common sense, he could try to appeal to the Venezuelan people, maybe even call and plan” another election, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in an interview with a local radio station.

His Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, for his part, through X, called for new “free” elections to be held. He also proposed, among other things, “the lifting of all economic sanctions” affecting the country.

The American president Joe Biden he followed a few minutes later by answering “yes” to a reporter who asked him if he supports Brazil and Colombia’s proposals.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has since August ratified the victory of the outgoing president Nicolas Maduro with 52% of the vote, without announcing the exact count and minutes of the polling stations, assuring that he was the victim of cyber-hacking.

According to the opposition, which released minutes obtained by members of its electoral commissions, its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the presidential election with 67% of the vote, a result that Maduro rejects.

The announcement of Maduro’s re-election for a third term sparked spontaneous protests, with 25 dead, 192 injured and 2,400 arrested, according to an official source.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado immediately dismissed calls for new presidential elections.

“The fact that you suggest that what happened on July 28 should not be taken into account is for me a lack of respect for Venezuelans (…) popular sovereignty has self-respect,” Machado said during a press conference via the Internet to Chilean media and of Argentina.

The elections “were held and Venezuelan society expressed itself in very unfavorable circumstances. There was fraud and yet we managed to win,” he said.

Maduro, for his part, has already ruled out any new vote, saying three days after his disputed re-election: “I won the game of dominoes and ask to play it again? It’s like playing dominoes, I’ve won and I’m asking to play the same game again, please! No, you’ve already won, drink a beer,” he had said on July 31 during a press conference.

For its part, the parliament today passed the law that imposes regulations on non-governmental organizations and associations and which the opposition describes as a freedom killer.

Two other bills, on “incitement to fascism and incitement to hatred” and on the regulation of social media, are also in the preparation stage.

The government controls the unicameral parliament, holding 256 of the 277 seats after the opposition boycotted the 2020 parliamentary elections.