Venezuelan opposition leader who claims to have defeated Maduro to meet Biden at White House

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Venezuelan opposition leader who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday at the White House, a senior administration official confirmed to The Associated Press.

The meeting comes as Edmundo González, a retired diplomat who represented Venezuela’s main opposition coalition in the July presidential election, tries to rally support for his effort to get Maduro out of office. The official was not authorized to discussed details of the visit publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

González began a tour of the Americas with stops in Argentina and Uruguay on Saturday. He called on Venezuelans living in the Washington area to gather Monday outside the offices of the Organization of American States.

Meanwhile, Maduro already received an invitation from the National Assembly to be sworn in for a third term Friday, more than five months after the National Electoral Council, stacked with ruling-party loyalists, declared him winner of the July 28 election.

Unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts. However, the opposition collected tally sheets from more than 80% of the nation’s electronic voting machines, posted them online and said they showed González had won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.

The U.S. and most European governments have rejected the election’s official results and consider González the legitimate winner.

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Miller reported from Washington, D.C.

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