González Urrutia and Machado have now fully embarked on Washington's revamped version of its failed Guaidó coup plan, promoting unverified claims that the radical opposition candidate is president-elect while dismissing the Supreme Court's audit of the results. These latest actions show they were real in their threats to bring "terrible consequences" for the country, but Venezuela and its people will never back down to such pressure.
This mockery of an election has shown that all efforts to ensure a peaceful democratic transition for Venezuela were in vain because Maduro never really intended to carry out free and fair elections — let alone to leave power. This isn't a left-right issue. González is the rightful president-elect, and the world's democracies must recognize that and pressure Maduro.