Brazil and Colombia discuss Venezuelan situation

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BRASILIA (Reuters) -The presidents of Brazil and Colombia discussed options for negotiating an end to the Venezuelan crisis in a phone call on Wednesday, Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.

“I was on a phone call with Colombia, trying to see if we could find a way out for the problems in Venezuela, to see if we could reestablish democratic calm in that country,” he said at an event, confirming a Reuters report that they would talk on Wednesday.

The phone call involving Lula and his counterpart, Gustavo Petro, was decided after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pulled out of a three-way presidential initiative on Venezuela’s contested election, two sources told Reuters.

Brazil and Colombia have coordinated their diplomatic efforts to resolve the Venezuelan crisis, that arose from the July 28 election that both Venezuela’s government and its opposition claim to have won.

Lula and Petro have called for the release of detailed voting tallies by Venezuelan authorities.

The Mexican leader said on Tuesday he would not participate for now in conversations with Brazil and Colombia and would wait for a review that Venezuela’s Supreme Court will conduct of the election.

Lula and Petro decided to continue with the talks after they were informed of the Mexican president’s withdrawal, said one of the Brazilian officials, who asked not to be named to be able to speak freely.

The Brazilian and Colombian presidents plan to arrange a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and with opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, the sources said.

Neither Brazil nor Colombia plan to recognize the election result or Maduro’s victory until the vote tallies are published fully, the Brazilian sources said.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; additional reporting by Luana Maria Benedito; Editing by Kylie Madry, David Holmes and Sandra Maler)