By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A group of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators on Tuesday called for elections in Venezuela, seven months after President Donald Trump's administration removed then-President Nicolas Maduro and installed his vice president as acting president.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire introduced a resolution reaffirming U.S. support for elections in Venezuela, calling for the release of political prisoners and saying that anyone - including senior government figures - should be punished if they are responsible for harming anyone seeking public office.
The bipartisan resolution comes amid increased frustration over what critics see as the Trump administration's failure to effect real change in Venezuela by pushing Venezuela's government, now led by acting President Delcy Rodriguez, toward free and fair elections.
Talks between Venezuela's interim government and a faction of the opposition are set to begin in the coming days, but without Maria Corina Machado, the country's most popular opposition leader.
"The people of Venezuela deserve free, fair, and transparent elections, and it is vital to the national security interests of the United States that those elections occur expeditiously," Cruz, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
Shaheen, the committee's top Democrat, said authorities in Caracas must release all political prisoners and allow all political actors, including Machado, to safely return and participate in political activity.
The resolution has five other co-sponsors, four Democrats and one Republican.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado left Venezuela late last year to receive her Nobel after living mostly in hiding since a contested 2024 presidential election. She has vowed to return to help with the response to June's devastating twin earthquakes, frustrating U.S. officials who believe it is not the right time.
Trump has denied media reports that his administration told Machado not to return. Machado has repeatedly been publicly sidelined by Washington since Maduro's removal, with U.S. officials saying she does not have enough support to lead the country.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
