Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has accused the country’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, of being the “arm of persecution and state terrorism” for his actions against opposition politicians and activists, which recently led to an arrest warrant against former presidential candidate Edmundo González for refusing to appear at several summonses at the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“Following the statements by Tarek William Saab, in which he shows that he is one of the main harassers and violators of the Human Rights of citizens; I want to confirm my position: this Prosecutor’s Office is an arm of persecution and state terrorism in Venezuela; the appointment and performance of its spokesperson is not only illegitimate, it is a shame that history will judge,” Machado said on her social network account X.
After that, she assumed responsibility for the publication of the electoral records on a website set up by the opposition. and that would demonstrate González’s victory in the elections, thus contradicting the official results, which declared the president, Nicolás Maduro, as the winner.
“Edmundo González Urrutia is the elected president of Venezuela; Maduro knows it, the CNE knows it, the judges know it and the members of the National Armed Forces know it. Military citizens and police have a constitutional duty that they must fulfill,” he added.
In that sense, he said that the collection and digitalization of the minutes, as well as their publication, was a “constitutional right” and an “epic citizen feat” that makes them advance against Chavismo, which “sinks more and more every day.”
Shortly before, Saab had ratified the arrest warrant against González, who is accused of “usurpation of functions,” “forging a public document,” “instigation to disobedience of laws,” “conspiracy,” “sabotage to damage systems” and “association.”
The prosecutor has responded in this way to the document submitted the day before by González’s lawyer, which he has described as a “negative precedent” and which is “out of place” considering that he declares himself “above the law, the authority and the State.”
“(González) becomes the court and the prosecutor and says that he is innocent. If you are innocent, why did you not attend the summons?”, Saab asked, according to Globovisión.
The prosecutor also explained that the former presidential candidate claims that “he did not attend the summons because he did not know why he was being investigated,” however, “each summons stated exactly what the reasons were.”
He also accused him of serving as a “trigger to start the wave of violence in the country that they had planned” after ignoring the results of the elections.
“(Edmundo González) is the intellectual author of the death of 27 people, of the more than 100 injured and of the 400 attacks on State and private institutions that caused the violent events after the elections,” he added.
Finally, he confirmed that during the meeting with the lawyer, José Vicente Haro, the latter acknowledged that he recommended González attend the summons but that “people outside the legal team pressured him and did not allow him to attend.”
