A Venezuelan judge on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate widely believed to have won the contested July 28 election against Nicolás Maduro.
The 75-year-old, retired diplomat was thrust into the forefront of Venezuelan politics earlier in the year after he agreed to run against Maduro in place of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was banned from running for office.
Maduro claimed victory in the election but has yet to provide any proof. Whereas González and the opposition coalition published 80% of precinct-level voting tabulations that indicate that he won the presidential election by a wide margin.
The Public Prosecutor’s office accused González of usurpation of public funds, forging public documents, instigation to disobey the law, sabotaging computer systems, and conspiring against the state.
These alleged crimes could see the retired diplomat behind bars for the rest of his life if convicted.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a staunch Maduro ally, first filed a request to issue an arrest warrant against González as part of an investigation into the website where the opposition published the voting tabulations.
The signed request was made public in a now-deleted post from the public prosecutor’s Instagram account. The warrant was officially issued by a judge shortly after.
This comes after the Public Ministry summoned González three times for investigation last week. González has not been seen in public for over a month while the Maduro regime has been busy arresting other opposition members.
On Monday night, opposition leader Machado called for people to keep calm and accused the regime of “losing all sense of reality.”
“By threatening the President-elect, they only succeed in uniting us further and increasing the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo González,” she added via X.
In a joint statement, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay “unequivocally and absolutely” rejected the arrest warrant against González.
The seven Latin American countries deemed the arrest warrant as “nothing more than another attempt to silence Mr. González, ignore the will of the Venezuelan people,” adding that it “constitutes political persecution.”
Additionally, Chile, Perú and the United States have released similar statements condemning the warrant against González.
Since the July election the country has been plunged into turmoil. The Maduro government crackdown has resulted in at least 1,700 detained after spontaneous protests erupted in the days after the election. Several allies of González and Machado have been captured by secret police, the most recent being Machado’s lawyer and close confidant, Perkins Rocha.
González’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
