Venezuelan opposition candidate Gonzalez Urrutia ignores court notice for second time

Aug. 27, 2024, 3:52 p.m.

Read time estimation: 4 minutes.

  2

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia on Tuesday ignored a second summons to appear before prosecutors as part of a probe into his claim that he was the rightful victor of last month’s presidential election.

Gonzalez Urrutia, 74, who disappeared from public view shortly after President Nicolas Maduro was declared the victor of the election, ignored a first request to appear on Monday.

According to the summons, Gonzalez Urrutia is being investigated for alleged crimes such as “usurpation of functions” and “forgery of public documents.”

The Unitary Platform opposition coalition denounced the “judicial harassment” of its candidate who it said won the vote “by an overwhelming majority.”

“The repeated summons … constitute a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression”, the coalition wrote on the X social network, adding it now feared an arrest warrant against Gonzalez Urrutia.

Advertisement This little-known retired diplomat emerged as a late presidential contender after Maria Corina Machado, a prominent opposition figure, was barred from running in the July 28th election. Machado subsequently endorsed his candidacy.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the election, with 52 percent of votes cast, but it has refused to publish detailed results, claiming hackers had corrupted the data.

The opposition has shared polling-station-level results which seemingly show that Gonzalez Urrutia defeated Maduro with 67 percent of the vote.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the opposition’s website, where it has posted the detailed breakdown of election results, had “usurped” the powers of the Maduro-aligned CNE.

Saab, a Maduro ally, said Gonzalez Urrutia would have to explain his “disobedience.”

“Whoever attacks the institutions, whoever attacks our people must assume their responsibility. Enough is enough,” said Diosdado Cabello, number two in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

He said the “organs of the judicial system” must “make the necessary decisions” regarding Gonzalez Urrutia.

Fresh protests called

Gonzalez Urrutia last made a public appearance at a demonstration two days after the election.

Maduro has said both he and Machado belonged “behind bars.”

The announcement of Maduro’s reelection sparked protests that left 27 dead and nearly 200 injured, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to authorities.

Advertisement Both the government and Machado have urged their supporters to participate in competing demonstrations on Wednesday.

“One month after our glorious victory, in which Edmundo Gonzalez was elected President, Venezuelans (must) again take to the streets,” she wrote on X.

The United States, the European Union, and several Latin American nations have declined to acknowledge Maduro's victory without reviewing detailed election results.

Observers say what happens next depends a lot on whether the international community can exert sufficient pressure on Maduro – who managed to cling to power despite sanctions that followed his 2018 re-election which was also dismissed as a sham by dozens of countries.

Advertisement Since assuming office in 2013, Maduro has overseen an economic crisis that has led to the exodus of more than seven million Venezuelans from the oil-rich nation, as GDP plummeted by 80 percent over a decade.

Analysts attribute the economic decline to international sanctions and domestic economic mismanagement.