Argentine President Milei calls Venezuela's Maduro a 'dictator' and says data shows 'a crushing victory for the opposition'

Argentine President Javier Milei said that data from the Venezuelan elections show a "crushing victory" by the opposition and called President Nicolás Maduro to step down.

Milei, who has had fierce crashes with Maduro during the past weeks, called him a "dictator" and said the world is waiting for him to "recognize defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and death."

"Argentina won't recognize another fraud and waits for the armed forces to defend democracy and the popular will this time," concludes Milei's message posted on X.

The Argentine government has stepped up its rhetoric over the past hours, now openly calling for Maduro to concede. Earlier its Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino, had joined counterparts from six other countries in a call for Caracas to "respect the popular will expressed by the Venezuelan people at the polls."

Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republican and Uruguay issued a joint statement saying they are "closely following the events in Venezuela" and "consider it indispensable to have guarantees that the electoral result will clearly respect the popular will expressed by the Venezuelan people at the polls."

However, she later published a post on her own, saying on X: "Maduro: RECOGNIZE YOUR DEFEAT. The difference in votes against the chavista dictatorship is overwhelming. You've lost in all states by more than 35%. There is no fraud or violence that can hide reality," she added.

Maduro and Milei have traded public barbs, with the former recently calling the latter a "Nazi and a fascist" and used him as an example of the unwanted direction the country could go on should he lose the elections.

"He got angry when I said so but it is the truth. That Milei is a Nazi and a fascist, he is putting workers through a chainsaw (a euphemism used by Milei to refer to steep austerity measures). He got angry when I said it but the truth is the truth," Maduro added during a political rally.

He went on to ask attendees if they wanted "Venezuela to go in the same direction as Argentina" and for the country to become "the social disaster Argentina is under Milei."

Other officials across the region have made similar statements to Milei's. Florida Senator Marco Rubio sounded the alarm about potential fraud in today's Venezuelan elections, expressing concerns over the legitimacy of the process.

"Everybody knows a massive voter turnout like the one today in Venezuela would result in a massive loss for Maduro. The ONLY way he wins is with massive fraud," Rubio stated in social media.

A similar message was sent by Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar, who said "Chavismo's silence speaks for itself." "Maduro has lost the democratic game and must go. Delaying the results will only increase tensions on the streets and that's what the regime wants: violence and chaos. The days of the Miraflores mafia have ended!" she said, in reference to the presidential palace.