The complicated and increasingly lonely position of the Nicolás Maduro government due to the fraud in the recent presidential elections, was further weakened after the rector of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Juan Carlos Delpino, questioned the transparency of the process that has been validated, despite the total lack of data, by two chavista organizations.
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Delpiano gave an interview to the New York Times from "clandestinity" and later published a statement through the social network X, which is blocked in Venezuela by the Maduro regime.
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Who is Juan Carlos Delpino?
The CNE has five members, known as rectors, and the president Elvis Amoroso plus two other officials are linked to Chavismo and have the majority.
But there are two other executives who are close to the opposition. One of them is Delpino, who was appointed as deputy rector four years ago and in August 2023 assumed as one of the titular ones.
According to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, Delpino's ties to the opposition date back to 2010, when he was the national coordinator of Acción Democrática, a party that this year called for voting for Edmundo González.
What were Delpino's criticisms of the Venezuelan electoral process?
"I am ashamed and I apologize to the Venezuelan population, because the entire plan that was woven to have elections accepted by all, I did not achieve," Delpino told the New York Times, adding that "I did not receive any evidence" that Maduro had obtained enough votes to defeat González.
Through X, the rector published a letter detailing several irregularities before and during the elections on July 28. Among them, he mentioned that the polling stations took a long time to report the results from the automatic machines, while several opposition volunteers were prevented from entering in violation of the electoral rules that guarantee the transparent transmission of the count to the CNE headquarters.
He also mentions in his letter the “lack of transparency and truthfulness of the results” and that “a breach of essential rules and regulations was evidenced” due to the eviction of the opposition at the polling places.