Maduro Regime Issues Arrest Warrant Against Opposition Candidate Edmundo Gonzalez

The Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office — loyal to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro — issued an arrest warrant on Monday for opposition leader Edmundo González, accusing him of alleged conspiracy and other crimes as Maduro continues its brutal crackdown on dissidents following the July 28 sham presidential election, which the dictator fraudulently insists he “won.”

González, a lesser-known 75-year-old former diplomat, was the only opposition candidate that the Maduro regime allowed to be on the July 28 sham election’s ballot, which featured the dictator — who appeared a total of 13 times — González, and a group of handpicked “opposition” rivals.

On Monday, the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office requested a court with jurisdiction over “terrorism” issue an arrest warrant against González for alleged crimes related to the elections, including “disobedience,” “conspiracy,” “usurpation of functions,” and “sabotage.”

Venezuela’s National Electoral Center — also loyal to Maduro — proclaimed the socialist dictator as the “winner” of the July 28 sham election, granting him a third consecutive six-year term. The electoral authorities, however, refuse to publish voter data or any kind of documentation that can corroborate Maduro’s claimed victory.

The Venezuelan opposition and the international community have heavily contested Maduro’s claimed victory, most notably after the opposition published on a website copies of more than 80 percent of the election’s vote tallies collected from local voting stations. The results of the published tallies indicate that González defeated Maduro in a landslide. 

Maduro’s claimed victory was upheld in late August by the Venezuelan Supreme Justice Tribunal — another entity stacked with Maduro loyalists — after allegedly “reviewing” the voter data that the Venezuelan electoral authorities refuse to publicly show.

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The Venezuelan top court sent a copy of its ruling to the Maduro-loyal Attorney General’s Office so that it can move forward with a criminal investigation against Venezuelan opposition leaders involved in the online publication of the voter tallies.

González, who is reportedly “in hiding” since the election, was called by the regime-controlled Public Prosecutor’s Office to testify three times over the past week regarding the opposition’s website that hosts the copies of the vote tallies. González publicly stated that he would not attend the summons, and accused the Public Prosecutor’s Office of wanting to “subject him to an interview without specifying the condition in which he is expected to appear and pre-qualifying crimes that he did not commit.”

González also accused Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab of repeatedly behaving “like a political accuser,” asserting that “he condemns in advance and now promotes a summons without guarantees of independence and due process.”

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who accompanied González throughout his campaign, denounced the arrest warrant and accused the Maduro regime of having “lost all sense of reality” through a social media post.

“By threatening the President-elect, they only succeed in uniting us further and increasing the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo González,” Machado’s message reads. “Serenity, courage and firmness. We move forward.”

Dictator Maduro lashed against González in one of his state-media shows shortly after the arrest warrant was issued, accusing him of “pretending to be above the laws.”

“Nobody is above the laws. The Prosecutor’s Office summoned him three times and he does not go, since he says he does not recognize the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in what country does that happen? González Urrutia has the nerve to say that he does not recognize the laws,” Maduro said. 

The governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay released a joint statement on Monday rejecting the arrest warrant issued against González, denouncing it and the alleged crimes cited by the document as political persecution and an attempt to disregard Venezuela’s popular will.

“In a country where there is no separation of powers or minimum judicial guarantees and where arbitrary detentions abound, we condemn these dictatorial practices and our efforts will be firm and continuous to demand that the Venezuelan authorities guarantee the life, integrity and freedom of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia,” the statement reads.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell rejected the arrest warrant against González through a Tuesday morning social media post in which he urged the Venezuelan authorities to respect the opposition leader’s freedom, integrity and human rights.

“Enough of the repression and harassment of the opposition and civil society,” Borrell’s message reads. “The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.”

The Maduro regime’s brutal crackdown of the nationwide protests against his fraudulent “victory” in the July 28 sham election have left over 25 deaths, roughly 200 injured, and the arbitrary arrest of 2,400 individuals — including 129 minors, of which 86 were reportedly released on Sunday.