Venezuelan justice issued an arrest warrant on Monday, September 2, against Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate who claims victory in the July 28 presidential elections against Nicolás Maduro. The prosecution claims to have obtained “arrest warrant for serious crimes” crimes by a court competent in matters of terrorism, according to a press release published on social media.
González Urrutia, 75, has failed to attend three court summonses, the last on Friday, to hear him speak about the opposition website that gives him victory in the presidential election.
The prosecutor’s office opened an investigation in early August against Mr. González Urrutia and the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, for “usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information, incitement to disobedience of the law, incitement to insurrection, criminal association”.
“They have lost all sense of reality. Threatening the president-elect [Gonzalez Urrutia], They only bring us closer and strengthen the support of Venezuelans and the entire world for Edmundo González.”She reacted on social media, M.me Machado, who like the former ambassador, lives in semi-clandestine conditions.
The opposition wants to return to the streets
To justify his absence, Gonzalez, who has not been seen in public since July 30, said he feared justice. “without guarantee of independence” and Attorney General Tarek William Saab, whom he accuses of behaving “as a political accuser”.
“No one in this country is above the law, above the institutions, as the coward Edmundo González Urrutia claims (…)”Maduro said during his weekly television program.
The socialist president, whose victory was validated by the Supreme Court, was declared the winner with 52% of the votes by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which did not make public the minutes of the polling stations, claiming that it was the victim of computer hacking. Such an attack is not considered very credible by the opposition and by many observers, who see it as a maneuver by those in power to avoid revealing the exact count.
According to the opposition, which published the minutes provided by its scrutineers, González Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.
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Following the announcement of Mr. Maduro’s re-election, spontaneous protests left 27 dead and 192 injured, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official sources. Much of the international community, led by the United States, does not recognize Mr. Maduro’s re-election. The opposition said it did not want to leave the streets.
