CARACAS, Venezuela – A Venezuelan judge on Monday issued an arrest warrant for former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as part of a criminal investigation with highly anticipated consequences. July election that both the ruling party and its opponents Claim to have won.
The warrant was issued at the request of the officers who charged Gonzalez, A former diplomatVarious offenses including conspiracy, falsifying documents and usurpation of powers. The move is the latest escalation of a crackdown on the opposition, a month after election officials announced that President Nicolas Maduro had won a third term in office.
Authorities sought the warrant after Gonzalez failed to appear three times to answer questions from prosecutors. Gonzalez, 75, has not made any public appearances since the day after the election. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Prosecutors have zeroed in on the thousands Tally sheets are known as actas — several feet of printouts resembling shopping receipts — that have long been considered the final proof of election results in Venezuela. Each of the 30,000 electronic voting machines used in the July 28 election printed multiple copies of the sheet, the information of which was also transmitted to the National Election Council.
Election authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner hours after polls closed, but they did not publish the results broken down by voting machines as they had done in previous presidential elections. The National Electoral Council claimed that it could not release detailed information because its website had been hacked.
Even Maduro’s ruling party has refused to release copies of his tally sheets.
The opposition, however, got tally sheets from More than 80% of the machines, And said they show Maduro losing to Gonzalez by a wide margin and then publish it online.
As international pressure mounts to reveal the breakdown of the results, Maduro has asked the country’s highest court to audit the electoral process. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice, stacked with Maduro loyalists, concluded on August 22 that vote counts published by the opposition were false and Maduro’s certificate of victory.
Gonzalez was called to the prosecutor’s office on Friday.
He has questioned the prosecutors’ actions for lacking due process guarantees and accused Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a longtime Maduro ally, of being a “political accuser” who “condemns the past.” Gonzalez declined an interview summons, noting, among other things, that he did not specify the condition in which he was expected to appear.
“Maduro has lost all touch with reality,” Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado Wrote on X after the warrant was issued. “The arrest warrant issued by the regime to threaten President-elect Edmundo Gonzalez crosses a new line that only strengthens the resolve of our movement. The Venezuelan people and democracies around the world are united more than ever in our quest for freedom.”
An AP review of tally sheets released by the opposition suggests Gonzalez won significantly more votes than the government claimed. Analysis casts serious doubt on the official declaration that Maduro had won.
AP processed about 24,000 images 79% represented the results of the voting machines, resulting in the tabulation of 10.26 million votes. Processed tally sheets also showed Gonzalez receiving more votes with 20,476 receipts compared to only 3,157 for Maduro.
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