The United States said Tuesday it recognizes opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as president-elect of Venezuela -- the first time it called him that -- four months after a disputed election in which incumbent Nicolas Maduro claimed victory amid accusations of fraud.
The statement from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken prompted a furious reaction from Caracas, which dismissed it as "ridiculous."
"The Venezuelan people spoke resoundingly on July 28 and made (Gonzalez Urrutia) the president-elect," Blinken wrote in a post on X. "Democracy demands respect for the will of the voters."
The statement marked the first time the United States has referred to Gonzalez Urrutia with that title, although President Joe Biden has previously said he won the election.
Responding on X, Gonzalez Urrutia said he was grateful for the US recognition. "This gesture honors the change in our country and the civic feat that we carried out together this past July 28."
Maduro claimed victory in the election and defied intense domestic and international pressure to release detailed polling numbers to back up the assertion.
Amid an outcry at home and abroad, the former bus driver handpicked by the late Hugo Chavez is now serving his third in the oil-rich country whose economy is a shambles, as Venezuelans endure acute shortages of food, medicine and other basic goods.
Maduro is accused of leading a harshly repressive leftist regime, with a systematic crackdown on the opposition.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil reacted to the Blinken declaration in a message on Telegram, describing him as an "avowed enemy of Venezuela."
Gil referenced Washington's support in 2019 of then National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido as acting president after Maduro's contested reelection in 2018.
On the Blinken statement, Gil quoted what he said was a popular adage: "once you are ridiculous, you never stop being ridiculous."
Since the election, Gonzalez Urrutia has fled to Spain due to an outstanding arrest warrant. Opposition party leader Maria Corina Machado -- the little known former diplomat was a stand in for her, as she was barred from running for president -- has gone into hiding as well.
Maduro's disputed re-election has faced criticism from elsewhere around the globe, including the European Union, and led to massive protests in Venezuela, resulting in 28 deaths, almost 200 injured and some 2,400 protesters arrested, among whom 224 have ben released.
Washington's recognition of Gonzalez Urrutia comes in the shadow of Republican President-elect Donald Trump returning to power on January 20.
Trump has appointed Florida Senator Marco Rubio to succeed Blinken as secretary of state, setting him up to be the first Latino to hold the position.
Rubio, the child of Cuban immigrants, is expected to take a tougher stance against the leftist governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
