Meeting of the US president with Venezuelan opposition leader has “an important weight”: experts

The meeting of opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia with the president of the United States, Joe Bidensets the tone for other American governments and the rest of the world in terms of his recognition as the elected leader of Venezuela, despite occurring in the midst of a political transition in the North American country, according to experts.

Biden received in Washington González Urrutia, the Venezuelan opposition candidate in the presidential elections of July last year, who promises to end his exile to return to his country this week and be sworn in as head of state.

Officially, the victory of those votes was awarded to Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela since 2013 and who plans to assume a third term of 6 more years on Friday before the National Assembly, with an overwhelming Chavista majority.

An audience with the president of the United States is considered in the political universe as a meeting of the greatest significance and usually inaugurates a close collaboration with the counterpart, according to those who understand diplomatic affairs.

These meetings can translate into political support, economic agreements, cultural exchanges, strengthening bilateral relations and even military and security support.

The meeting between Biden and González Urrutia is extraordinary, as it occurs in the midst of a transition of power in the United States and also on the eve of a new presidential term in Venezuela, according to the experts consulted by the VOA.

“A meeting with Biden is very important to thank his government for his government’s support for the election of Edmundo González Urrutia,” explains retired Venezuelan diplomat and former ambassador to the United Nations Milos Alcalay, a supporter of the opposition leader.

Alcalay, who believes that González Urrutia comfortably won the July elections, highlights the Voice of America that the visit of the opposition leader also paves the way for “privileged relations” to exist between Venezuela and the United States.

“The United States is a country that will defend the validity of human rights, democracy and hemispheric integration” during the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, starting next January 20, when he is sworn in as president, says Alcalay.

The veteran diplomat considers that González Urrutia’s visit to Washington is not a matter of a specific day, but rather an effort to establish “a medium and long-term relationship” between both countries, with the concert of American bipartisanship.

“We see relations with the United States and with the head of state, President Donald Trump, as extremely important. All our orientation with the US government will be focused on reestablishing ties” between both nations, he estimates.

The US commitment

González Urrutia’s meeting with the US president also sends a message to the rest of the region’s leaders, according to Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the analysis center The Wilson Center.

“Without a strong and consistent commitment from the United States to a political transition in Venezuela, several important actors in the region will not maintain their current policy of not recognizing the official results of last July’s fraudulent elections,” Gedan tells the Voice of America.

For this reason, he believes it is important that there are “clear signals” from President-elect Donald Trump about Venezuela’s democratic future. Without US support, he says, it would be “impossible to isolate and pressure the regime for the future.”

Before arriving in Washington, González Urrutia met over the weekend with the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay, Javier Milei and Luis Lacalle Pou. Not only did he visit Biden at the White House, but he will hold “several high-level meetings” with other officials of the US administration, according to his political command.

These González Urrutia meetings are “a reminder” that these nations consider him the winner of the Venezuelan presidential elections, Gedan highlights.

“Unfortunately, none of this will achieve political change,” he points out, but said that such support can “disincentivize” the international community from participating in Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term and the recognition of his legitimacy.

“Before the swearing-in in Caracas (of Maduro), it is extremely important that a final effort be made to comply with the wishes of the vast majority of Venezuelan voters,” says the Wilson Center analyst.

The Biden administration has held high-level meetings with Maduro government officials since at least 2023 to encourage political negotiations with his opponents ahead of a “fair and transparent” presidential election. These incentives included the relaxation of economic sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector.

Chavismo, for its part, agreed to receive deportation flights of Venezuelans from the US into its territory. These dialogues between Caracas and Washington also included an exchange of detainees.

Washington’s weight

The meeting with Biden and other senior officials of the US administration has “an important weight” particularly for Latin America, but also for the rest of the world, in the opinion of international relations expert Juan Francisco Contreras.

“It is a demonstration of support for the figure of the elected president of Venezuela,” regardless of the political transition that is being experienced in the United States, he estimates.

Meetings and messages such as those held in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Washington will have “a weight” on the decisions of the governments of the region regarding political recognition and legitimacy in Venezuela, predicts Contreras.

The Venezuelan opposition claims electoral victory with more than 37 percentage points over Maduro and published copies of 85% of the voting records to prove it. The ruling party proclaimed the socialist ruler the winner without presenting a breakdown of the results in each electoral center in the country, as was the style for years.

Countries with leftist presidents, such as the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Colombian Gustavo Petro, have not yet announced whether they will recognize Maduro as president after January 10, after having demanded the breakdown of the votes, without success.

Chavismo has warned that González Urrutia would become a “Guaidó 2.0”, in reference to Juan Guaidó, president of the Venezuelan parliament between 2019 and 2022, who was then recognized as president of an interim government by several countries, including the United States, with the argument that Maduro usurped power after a celebration that the opposition described as fraudulent.

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