Venezuelan justice has issued an arrest warrant against former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia amid a fiscal investigation into the disclosure of the minutes of the July 28 election.
The 75-year-old retired ambassador is being investigated by the public prosecutor for allegedly committing the crimes of “usurpation of functions, forgery of public documents, instigation to disobedience of laws, conspiracy, sabotage to damage systems and association.”
González Urrutia was summoned three times by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but he did not attend, arguing that he does not have guarantees and that the Attorney General “has repeatedly behaved like a political accuser” who “condemns in advance.” In response, the prosecutor’s office requested an arrest warrant against the former candidate, which was quickly issued.
After the measure was announced, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, winner of the opposition presidential primary but disqualified from holding public office, reacted by saying that Maduro’s government had lost “all sense of reality.”
“By threatening the president-elect, they only succeed in uniting us more and increasing the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo González. Serenity, courage and firmness. We are moving forward.” wrote in X.
The National Electoral Council (CNE), which has not published the detailed data of the presidential elections a month later, declared Nicolás Maduro the winner for a third term, but the opposition, which published the minutes kept by its table witnesses, claims that González Urrutia won.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said last week that a third subpoena would be issued. The subpoena warned that González Urrutia was due to appear last Friday and that failure to appear would indicate that there is a “risk of flight” and “risk of obstruction,” so an arrest warrant would be issued.
Machado had announced that González Urrutia would not attend.
“Of course he will not attend, we all know that we are talking about a totalitarian system where there is absolute control. Edmundo has already been tried,” he said on Thursday.
She also warned that although she is not at the scene, clarifying that since she is sheltered, her home could be raided.
President Nicolás Maduro also said last week that if a citizen is summoned and does not appear for the third time, the option is to “put him on the hook” (arrest him).
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