By In a significant escalation of Venezuela’s ongoing political crisis, the country’s attorney general’s office announced on Monday that a court has issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez. The warrant accuses Gonzalez of conspiracy and other crimes, intensifying the dispute over the results of the July 28 presidential election.
Attorney General Tarek Saab shared a photograph of the warrant with Reuters via the messaging application Telegram, confirming the government’s move against the opposition figure. This action marks a major intensification of President Nicolas Maduro’s government’s crackdown on the opposition following the contested election.
The issuance of the arrest warrant comes in the wake of Venezuela’s national electoral authority and its top court declaring Maduro the victor of the July election, claiming he secured just over half of the votes. However, tallies shared by the opposition paint a starkly different picture, showing a resounding victory for Gonzalez.
The warrant follows weeks of provocative statements from top government officials suggesting that Gonzalez and other opposition members should face imprisonment. President Maduro, in a broadcast on state television, criticized Gonzalez’s stance, stating, “This man has the nerve to say he doesn’t recognize laws, he doesn’t recognize anything. What’s up with that? That’s unacceptable.” Maduro further asserted that citizens agree that laws must be enforced and officials must do their job.
The opposition, along with some Western countries and international bodies including a United Nations panel of experts, have raised serious concerns about the transparency of the vote. They have demanded the publication of full tallies, with some outright accusing the government of fraud.
In response to the warrant, a spokesperson for Gonzalez stated that they were awaiting official notification but declined to comment further. The opposition has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado took to social media platform X to denounce the government’s actions, saying, “They have lost all notion of reality. Threatening the President-elect will only achieve more cohesion and increase the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo Gonzalez.”
The opposition has taken the unprecedented step of publishing what it claims are copies of over 80% of ballot box-level tallies on a public website. Meanwhile, the electoral council has cited a cyber attack on election night as the reason for its failure to publish the full tallies.
The arrest warrant appears to be the latest move in what the opposition describes as a broader crackdown on dissent. Attorney General Saab has also initiated criminal probes into Machado and the opposition’s vote tally website. Detentions of opposition figures and protesters have continued in the weeks following the vote, with protests leading to at least 27 deaths and approximately 2,400 arrests.
The warrant was issued after prosecutor Luis Ernesto Duenez requested Gonzalez’s arrest on charges including usurpation of functions, falsification of public documents, instigation to disobey the law, conspiracy, and association, all allegedly committed against the Venezuelan state. Notably, Gonzalez had previously ignored three summons to testify about the opposition’s vote tally website, potentially allowing for a warrant to be issued in that case as well.
Legal experts consulted by Reuters pointed out that Venezuelan law does not permit those over 70 to serve sentences in jails, instead mandating house arrest. Gonzalez, who recently turned 75, is married with two daughters, one residing in Caracas and the other in Madrid.
The political tensions in Venezuela have international implications. The United States has reportedly drafted a list of about 60 Venezuelan government officials and family members who could face sanctions in the first punitive measures following the disputed election.
Since the vote, Venezuela’s ruling party-controlled national assembly has passed legislation tightening rules on NGOs, and unions have denounced alleged forced resignations of state employees who expressed pro-opposition views.
Adding to the complex situation, the arrest warrant request came hours after the Biden administration announced that an aircraft used by Maduro had been confiscated in the Dominican Republic. U.S. authorities determined that the purchase of the aircraft violated U.S. sanctions, a move that the Venezuelan government condemned as an act of “piracy.”
