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Venezuela: International rejection of arrest warrant against opposition candidate
The United States, the European Union and nine Latin American countries on Tuesday rejected the arrest warrant issued against Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the Venezuelan opposition candidate who claims victory in the presidential election in which Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner. At the request of the prosecutor’s office, a court with jurisdiction over terrorism ordered the arrest of the 75-year-old diplomat as part of investigations for “disobedience to the law”, “conspiracy”, “usurpation of functions” and “sabotage”. The diplomat has not been seen in public since July 30, while opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is mostly in hiding, appears at opposition rallies. Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia has not responded to three summonses from the courts who wanted to hear him about the opposition website that claims he is the winner. He justified himself on social media by referring to the lack of “independence” of the justice system and a prosecutor who was a “political accuser.” A large part of the international community, led by the United States, does not recognize Mr. Maduro’s re-election, and rejected the arrest warrant issued Monday. The United States “joins several international partners in condemning the unjustified arrest warrant,” a White House spokesperson said Tuesday. “This is yet another example of Maduro’s attempts to hold on to power by force and to refuse to recognize that Mr. Gonzalez won the majority of votes,” added John Kirby, on behalf of the National Security Council. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, also “categorically” rejected the arrest warrant and urged “the Venezuelan authorities to respect his freedom, 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. – “Dictatorial practices” – For these nine countries, the arrest warrant is a “new attempt to silence Mr. Gonzalez, to ignore the will of the Venezuelan people and to constitute political persecution”. Venezuela, a country with the largest oil reserves in the world, has already broken off diplomatic relations with several of these countries that have not recognized Mr. Maduro’s re-election. The socialist president, 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, saying it was 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 poll workers, Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the vote. 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. Mr. Maduro and the government in general regularly attack Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia, frequently calling him a “coward” and saying he should be in prison. “No one in this country is above the law, above the institutions, as this man, this man in hiding, the coward Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia claims,” Mr. Maduro said Monday during his weekly television show. Shortly before the arrest warrant was announced, Washington announced Monday that it had seized a plane used by Mr. Maduro and “illegally acquired for $13 million through a front company,” according to the United States. Venezuela called the seizure an act of “piracy.”jt-pgf/sf/ib
