Venezuela: Amid row over Maduro election, arrest warrant for rival Gonzalez
Sept. 3, 2024, 2:40 a.m.
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Venezuela’s attorney general’s office said on Monday a court has issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, accusing him of conspiracy and other crimes amid a dispute over whether he or President Nicolas Maduro won a July election.
Attorney General Tarek Saab shared a photograph of the warrant with Reuters via a message on the Telegram app.
The issue of an arrest warrant against Gonzalez would amount to a major escalation in Maduro’s government’s crackdown against the opposition following the disputed election.
Advertisement Venezuela’s national electoral authority and its top court have said Maduro was the victor of the July 28 election with just over half of the votes, but tallies shared by the opposition show a resounding victory for Gonzalez.
The warrant follows weeks of statements from high-ranking government officials calling for Gonzalez and other opposition members to be imprisoned.
“This man has the nerve to say he doesn’t recognize laws, he doesn’t recognize anything. What’s up with that? That’s unacceptable,” Maduro said in a broadcast on state television. “Citizens agree that laws have to work and that officials do their job.”
Critics, including some Western nations and international organizations like a United Nations expert panel, have cast doubt on the transparency of the election and demanded the release of complete vote counts. Several have even alleged fraud.
A spokesperson for Gonzalez stated that they are awaiting any notification of a warrant but declined to provide further details. The opposition has consistently maintained their innocence.
“They have lost all notion of reality,” opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on X. “Threatening the President-elect will only achieve more cohesion and increase the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo Gonzalez.”
The opposition has shared what it claims are copies of over 80% of ballot box-level tallies on a public website. However, the electoral council attributes the inability to release complete tallies to a cyberattack that occurred on election night.
The warrant request appeared to be the government’s latest salvo in what the opposition says is a crackdown on dissent.
Advertisement Saab has also initiated criminal investigations into Machado and the opposition vote tally website itself. Additionally, detentions of opposition figures and protesters have continued in the weeks following the election.
Protests have led to at least 27 deaths and some 2,400 arrests.
Gonzalez disregarded three official requests to appear in court regarding the website, which could lead to a warrant being issued for his arrest in that case.
The arrest warrant was issued after prosecutor Luis Ernesto Duenez requested Gonzalez's detention for alleged crimes against the Venezuelan state, including abuse of power, document forgery, inciting lawbreaking, conspiracy, and association.
Legal experts consulted by Reuters explained that Venezuelan law exempts individuals over 70 from imprisonment, mandating house arrest instead. Gonzalez, who recently celebrated his 75th birthday, is married and has two daughters, one residing in Caracas and the other in Madrid.
Advertisement The U.S. has prepared a list of approximately 60 Venezuelan government officials and family members who could face sanctions as part of the initial punitive actions following the election, according to two sources close to the situation.
Since the election, the ruling party-controlled national assembly enacted legislation tightening regulations for NGOs and labor unions, while allegations of forced resignations of state employees holding pro-opposition views emerged.
The warrant request came hours after the Biden administration said an aircraft used by Maduro had been confiscated in the Dominican Republic after determining that its purchase violated U.S. sanctions, a move the Venezuelan government slammed as an act of “piracy.”
