Venezuelan opposition leader González Urrutia thanks the United States for recognizing him as the winner of the presidential election

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia thanked the United States on Friday for recognizing him as the official winner of Sunday’s controversial presidential election, which saw both González Urrutia and President Nicolás Maduro emerge victorious.

“We thank the United States for recognizing the will of the Venezuelan people, which was reflected in our electoral victory, and for supporting the process of restoring democratic norms in Venezuela,” González Urrutia wrote on X.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday evening that the United States’ recognition of González Urrutia as Venezuela’s president-elect is based on evidence released this week by the opposition.

The opposition has released more than 80% of the election results it received directly from polling stations across Venezuela on election day. Those results show Gonzalez Urrutia won 66% of the vote, while Maduro received about 31%, according to an NBC News website accessed Wednesday, where the opposition released its tally.

“These results show that Edmundo González Urrutia received the most votes in this election, by an insurmountable margin,” Blinken said in a statement on Thursday. “Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, the people of Venezuela, that Edmundo González Urrutia won.”

The United States joined Argentina and Peru, the first country to recognize González Urrutia’s victory, in discrediting the official election results announced by the Maduro regime.

Hours after Blinken announced his decision on Thursday, more than a dozen masked gunmen ransacked opposition party headquarters, including the office of Maria Corina Machado, the main opposition leader who was barred from running by Maduro’s government.

Vente Venezuela, the opposition party to which Machado belongs, posted photos on social media showing several walls covered in black spray paint, as well as a message that attackers broke down doors and took valuable documents and equipment during the raid, which they said took place at around 3 a.m.

The raid followed threats from Maduro and senior government officials loyal to him to arrest Machado. While it is unclear whether there is an official warrant for her arrest, Machado said she went into hiding out of fear.

While remaining in hiding, she continued to urge the international community to challenge the election results announced by the Maduro regime and called on her supporters to show up at a demonstration in Caracas on Saturday.

The call by many governments, including close Maduro allies such as Colombia and Brazil, is putting pressure on Venezuela’s National Electoral Council to release detailed voting results, as it did in previous elections.

An electoral commission loyal to Maduro’s regime declared him the winner on Monday, saying he had been elected to a third term with 51 percent of the vote, but did not release the results that would confirm those results.

On Thursday evening, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement reiterating their calls for an independent assessment of the election results and urging Venezuelan electoral authorities to “act swiftly and publicly release” detailed voting data.

“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be upheld through impartial verification of the results,” the statement reads.

The statement does not confirm any behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to persuade the Maduro government to release the vote results.

Officials in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico told The Associated Press they were in constant contact with Maduro’s administration to persuade him to produce voting records from Sunday’s election and allow for impartial verification.

Maduro on Wednesday asked Venezuela’s highest court to conduct an audit of the election, but the request drew criticism from foreign observers who said the court was controlled by Maduro supporters. It is the same court that banned Machado from running in January’s election, leading to González Urrutia emerging as a surrogate opposition candidate in May.

On Thursday, the court accepted Maduro’s request for an audit and ordered him, González Urrutia and eight other candidates who ran in the presidential election to appear in court on Friday.

Asked why electoral authorities had not released detailed vote data, Maduro said the National Electoral Council had been attacked, including by cyberattacks, without giving details.

Controversy over the election results is stoking fears of increasing protests and violence amid international debate and a lack of consensus.

Since the protests erupted on Monday, thousands of opposition supporters have taken to the streets and the Venezuelan government has reported the arrest of hundreds of protesters, including former opposition candidate Freddy Superlano.

Venezuelan NGO Pro Vea has identified at least 15 protesters who have died since the demonstrations began, and continues to confirm additional reports of fatalities.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but the country went into free fall after Maduro took power in 2013. Plunging oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation of more than 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.

Since 2014, more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.