Brazil’s Lula Advises Maduro to Call New Elections in Venezuela

Attorney General of Venezuela Calls for Arrest of Opposition Leader Edmundo Gonzalez

September 2, 2024 TruthUSA

The opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez has declined to testify regarding the publication of voting tallies from the election.

Venezuela’s attorney general’s office is seeking an arrest warrant for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez for not responding to three summons to testify about an opposition website that revealed detailed information on the country’s disputed presidential election.

The arrest warrant request for the 75-year-old Gonzalez, seen in an electronic copy by The Epoch Times, is part of an investigation into his claim of winning the July presidential election against President Nicolas Maduro, who was officially declared the winner.

The arrest warrant accuses Gonzalez of various offenses such as usurping official functions, forging public documents, instigating public disobedience, conspiracy against the state, and sabotage.

Both Venezuela’s national electoral authority and the country’s top court have affirmed Maduro’s victory based on a tabulation of just over half of the votes.

The opposition, which was leading in the polls, contested this decision by publishing their own voting records on a website. These records, which were based on ballot box-level vote counts, indicated a significant victory for Gonzalez.

“We possess the records that prove our historic, unequivocal, and mathematically irreversible triumph,” Gonzalez stated during a press conference on July 29, disclosing the tallies obtained by the opposition challenging Maduro’s claim.

Maria Corina Machado, leader of the Vente Venezuela party, mentioned that they had gathered more than 70 percent of the tallies, demonstrating that Gonzalez received over 6.2 million votes compared to Maduro’s approximately 2.7 million. By early August, the opposition reported obtaining copies of voting tallies showing over 7 million votes in their favor, with Maduro receiving around 3.3 million, aligning with independent exit poll predictions.

After Maduro’s victory declaration, protests erupted due to lingering doubts and the absence of detailed voting records.

Maduro and other government officials have accused the opposition of inciting violence, with more than 27 deaths linked to the protests over the controversial election outcome.

In early August, Maduro announced that around 2,000 civilians had been detained in connection with the demonstrations. He condemned those who opposed his rule.

“This time, there will be no forgiveness,” he stated during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela. “We have 2,000 prisoners captured, and from there, they will go to Tocorón and Tocuyito [prisons], maximum punishment, justice.”

Maduro has also expressed that Gonzalez should be imprisoned.

The U.S. State Department declared that Maduro’s victory announcement “lacked supporting evidence” and found “overwhelming evidence … that Edmundo González Urrutia secured the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.”

A month later, in an update, the department stated that the Maduro regime had resorted to “widespread repression to retain power” amidst the protests and fraud allegations.

Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek Saab initiated criminal investigations against Machado, Gonzalez, and the website where the opposition shared its tallies.

Gonzalez has not commented publicly on the September 2 arrest warrant request, but he issued a statement on social media urging for the release of all remaining political prisoners in Venezuela, stating it’s “time to put an end to the persecution and move towards an orderly transition for peaceful change.”

In another update, the United States seized Maduro’s plane in the Dominican Republic on September 2 after determining that its purchase violated U.S. sanctions.

Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.

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