Machado says Maduro has “lost all contact with reality” because of his “threats against the president-elect”
Maduro justifies the decision by considering it "inadmissible" that González "does not recognize laws"
A Venezuelan court has issued an arrest warrant on Monday against the former opposition candidate of Venezuela Edmundo González Urrutia after accepting the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office against the opposition candidate, who declared himself the winner of the presidential elections held at the end of July and in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) gave the victory to the president of the country, Nicolás Maduro, results that have been questioned internationally.
The First Special Court of First Instance in Control Functions with Jurisdiction in Cases Linked to Crimes Associated with Terrorism has ordered the arrest of González Urrutia for the alleged crimes of “usurpation of functions”, “forgery of public document”, “instigation to disobedience of laws”, “conspiracy”, “sabotage to damage systems” and “association”, as confirmed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on its Instagram account.
Previously, the assistant prosecutor Luis Ernesto Dueñez had requested the arrest of González, a request that comes after the former opposition candidate did not appear on Friday at the headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating him for the publication on the Internet of data that would prove his victory in the elections of June 28, being the third time that he refused to appear.
MADURO JUSTIFIES THE ARREST ORDER
Maduro has justified this arrest order by considering it “inadmissible” that González “does not recognize laws”, in reference to his rejection of both the electoral results and the institutions controlled by Chavismo that have endorsed these elections.
“How are you going to say that you do not recognize the electoral power? How are you going to say that you are not going to recognize the electoral results? (…) In other words, you are above the law,” said Maduro during a televised program reported by the newspaper ‘El Nacional’.
For her part, the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, has assured that the Venezuelan Government has “lost all notion of reality” due to its “threats against the president-elect”, an action that “crosses a new line.”
“Maduro has lost all contact with reality. The arrest warrant issued by the regime to threaten President-elect Edmundo González crosses a new line that only strengthens the determination of our movement. Venezuelans and democracies around the world are more united than ever in our search for freedom,” he said on his account on the social network X.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office had already warned that if he did not attend, it would be understood that there was a “risk of flight” and “risk of obstruction” of the investigation. The opposition has released documents to show that González was the one who actually won the July 28 appointment, to the detriment of the current president, Nicolás Maduro, supported by both the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) –two bodies controlled by Chavismo–.
