Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro slams a "coup d'etat" led by the United States, after the results of last weekend's presidential election were called into question. On Thursday 31 July , top US diplomat Antony Blinken said there was "overwhelming evidence" that Maduro's rival Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had won the election, a claim backed by a number of Latin American leaders. The next day, on 1 August, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Costa Rica recognized Urrutia as Venezuela's president-elect.