Secretary of State Antony Blinken took a major step in changing geopolitical relations between the United States and Venezuela with this acknowledgment.

The Biden administration is beginning to refer to Edmundo González Urrutia as Venezuela’s president-elect, a senior administration official said, its strongest acknowledgment yet that the opposition candidate won July’s presidential election.

The US on Tuesday recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the "president-elect" of the South American country, marking the first acknowledgement since the July election in which President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory.