Star Metro - US urges pressure on Venezuela's Maduro after disputed vote

"The regime may try to obscure the results, but the Venezuelan people have spoken," Blinken said at a ministerial meeting on Venezuela on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. "Now, our job is to ensure their voices are heard."

Blinken said Maduro must be urged "to engage in a direct dialogue with Venezuela's united democratic opposition that leads to a peaceful return to democracy."

The meeting, co-hosted by Argentina and the United States and held at a New York City hotel, was also attended by representatives of the European Union, France, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

President Maduro has claimed victory in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election, despite it being contested by the opposition and much of the international community.

The government-aligned CNE electoral council declared him the winner hours after voting closed, giving him 52 percent of ballots cast without providing a full breakdown.

The opposition has published its own polling station-level data, which it says show that 74-year-old retired diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won by a landslide.

Facing an arrest warrant in Venezuela, Gonzalez Urrutia fled to Spain earlier this month and was granted political asylum there.

"We must continue to call on the Maduro regime to stop its repression of peaceful protestors, stop its repression of political opponents, immediately and unconditionally release all those who've been arbitrarily detained -- including children," Blinken said.

Washington has accused Maduro of clinging to power by force, but has so far refrained from strengthening sanctions against Venezuelan oil.

For her part, Argentine Minister Diana Mondino said that Maduro's government "couldn't care less" about Venezuelans, with 7.8 million people fleeing the country in recent years to escape economic misery.

"They have oil; they have corruption," Mondino said of Maduro's regime. "They don't care about their own people."

J.Hall--SMC