THE US government recognised Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the “president-elect” of the South American country on Tuesday, months after President Nicolas Maduro won the July election.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognised Mr Gonzalez in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in which he also demanded “respect for the will” of Venezuelan voters.

The administration of US President Joe Biden previously said Mr Gonzalez earned the most votes in the disputed July 28 election but had fallen short of acknowledging him as president-elect.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that Mr Blinken should use the last days of his government to “dedicate himself to reflect on his failures, get rid of the imperial and colonial complexes and go write the memoirs of how the Bolivarian Revolution made him bite the dust of defeat, just like his predecessors.”