“No asylum request”: Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate who claims victory in the presidential election on July 28, is not considering seeking asylum abroad despite the sword of Damocles of the arrest warrant issued against him on Monday by the Venezuelan justice system and rejected by a large part of the international community.
“No asylum application has been made” to any embassy, his lawyer, José Vicente Haro, told the press on Tuesday. “This is an issue that has not been raised by the family or Mr. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.”
The United States, the European Union and nine Latin American countries on Tuesday rejected the arrest warrant issued against the former candidate who has not been seen in public since July 30, with the UN saying it was “following the developments of the situation with concern.”
At the request of the prosecution, a court competent in terrorism matters ordered the arrest of the 75-year-old diplomat as part of investigations for “disobedience to the laws”, “conspiracy”, “usurpation of functions” and “sabotage”.
Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia did not respond to three summonses from the justice system that wanted to hear him about the opposition website that claims he is the winner. He justified himself on social networks by referring to the lack of “independence” of the justice system and a prosecutor who is a “political accuser.”
His lawyer clarified on Tuesday that Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia had “nothing to do with the whole process of collecting copies, the minutes (of the polling stations), the digitization of these minutes and their uploading on the website. It was a civic action on the part of the scrutineers of the polling stations.”
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, whose victory was validated by the Supreme Court on August 22, was declared the winner with 52% of the vote by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which did not make public the minutes of the polling stations, claiming to be the victim of computer hacking.
Such an attack is considered implausible by the opposition and many observers, who see it as a maneuver by the government to avoid disclosing the exact count. According to the opposition, which published the minutes provided by its scrutineers, Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.
– Hardening –
Much of the international community, led by the United States, does not recognize Mr. Maduro’s re-election and has rejected the arrest warrant issued on Monday.
“This is yet another example of Maduro’s attempts to hold on to power by force and to refuse to acknowledge that Mr. Gonzalez won a majority of the vote,” added John Kirby, speaking on behalf of the National Security Council.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil responded to the American position as “an accomplice of the criminal gang that tried to set fire to the country (…) You are now throwing tantrums when justice targets the organizers of the violence (…) Respect our country and our sovereignty, we will continue to move forward despite your hatred and your neocolonial pretensions.”
After the announcement of Mr Maduro’s re-election, spontaneous demonstrations left 27 dead and 192 injured, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official sources.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, also “categorically” rejected the arrest warrant and urged “the Venezuelan authorities to respect his freedom, his integrity and human rights.”
In the same vein, nine Latin American countries – Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay – said they “unequivocally and absolutely reject the arrest warrant,” according to a joint statement.
Left-wing allies Brazil and Colombia, which are hosting millions of Venezuelan refugees, expressed their “deep concern” on Tuesday evening, saying that the arrest warrant “makes it difficult to find a peaceful solution.” This is a hardening of the positions of Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro, who had so far increased their negotiation efforts.
Shortly before the arrest warrant was announced, Washington announced on Monday that it had seized a plane used by Mr Maduro and “illegally acquired for $13 million through a front company”. Venezuela called the seizure an act of “piracy”.
“There are a number of things that we have asked him (Maduro) to do, to stop repressing dissent, to release the polling records, which he still has not done, and to put Venezuela back on the path to democracy,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday.
“He has not shown his willingness to do so and that is why (…) we are considering a series of options,” he added.
jt-pgf/lab/
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