Ecuador recognizes González as Venezuela election winner as attention turns to new wave of migrants

Ecuador joined the U.S., Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica over the weekend in recognizing Edmundo González as the winner of last Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela. Although the Venezuelan elections commission claims Nicolás Maduro was reelected with a 52% majority, only a handful of countries are accepting the results.

Venezuelan refugees arrive on foot in Ecuador in 2019 from Colombia.

Before leaving for a visit to Ecuadorian migrants in the U.S. on Sunday, President Daniel Noboa said there was no doubt that González was the “legitimate winner.”

Uruguayan Foreign Minister Omar Paganini went further, claiming that all the documentation his government has seen indicates “fraud was committed by Venezuelan authorities” in the July 28 election. “Reviewing records from a number of sources, including from the opposition, we have the proof that González won the election by a large margin.”

Paganini said that voting numbers released Friday by the Venezuela elections commission “prove nothing and only raise more suspicions.”

Although not yet recognizing González as the winner, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia are insisting Venezuelan authorities produce voter documents. “The results released by the [Venezuela] elections committee Friday are not supported by credible documentation and cannot be accepted,” Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva said in a Sunday interview.

Also on Sunday, the European Union released a statement refusing to accept a Maduro victory.

Only a handful of countries have recognized Maduro’s reelection, including Russia, North Korea, China, Cuba and Nicaragua.

As the election drama plays out, officials in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru voiced concerns about a new wave of migrants arriving from Venezuela. “We are already providing refuge to 1.3 million Venezuelans and deteriorating social and economic circumstances in that country tell us that many more will soon be on the way,” the Colombian Foreign Ministry said in Saturday statement.

In Ecuador, organizations representing Venezuelan migrants said the country should be prepared for a “massive influx” of new arrivals. “The number of migrants in the country has remained steady for several months but this is about to change,” said Egleth Noda, president of the Chamos Venezolanos Foundation. “Many of the 450,000 Venezuelans in Ecuador already face great hardship and current events will almost certainly mean the arrival of more refugees and even more suffering.”

Noda said her foundation was receiving hundreds of calls from Venezuelans planning to relocate to Ecuador. “They are worried about government violence and crime as well as the lack of opportunity,” she said. “Because of the diplomatic isolation of their country, they expect the poor economy to get worse and there will be no way to earn a living.”

Noda said her foundation will ask President Daniel Noboa for humanitarian help to accommodate the expected arrivals. “We will need food, medical assistance and many more services for these people since most of them will arrive on foot and in poor condition. We are also in contact with the United Nations refugee relief office, and they promise to do what they can.”

She said the new migrants will concentrate in cities with large Venezuelan populations, especially Quito, Ibarra, Tulcán, Cuenca, Riobamba and Guayaquil.