U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday accused Venezuela of electoral manipulation and repression and said Caracas’ announcement that President Nicolas Maduro had won a third term in office had been stripped of “any credibility.”
Biden administration officials, briefing reporters about the vote on condition of anonymity, did not announce any new punitive measures but left open the door to additional sanctions, saying it would assess its sanctions policy in light of actions taken by Maduro’s government.
“By engaging in repression and electoral manipulation, and by declaring a winner without the detailed precinct-by-precinct polling results…Maduro representatives have stripped the supposed election results they announced of any credibility,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Daphne Psaledakis, Jasper Ward and Phil Stewart)