Venezuela | Opposition asks not to “criminalize” politics

(Caracas) The opposition, which claims victory in the presidential election of July 28, called on Wednesday to “not criminalize” politics and to avoid judicial “persecution” after the arrest warrant issued Monday against candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

The left-wing Brazilian and Colombian presidents, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro, had announced on Tuesday an upcoming meeting, probably on Wednesday, with their counterpart Nicolas Maduro, who was declared the winner of the election.

The Venezuelan justice system – which the opposition and many observers consider to be under the orders of the government – ​​has issued an arrest warrant against Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia for not having appeared at the three summonses of the prosecutor’s office concerning the investigation into the opposition website which gives him the victory in the presidential election of July 28.

José Vicente Haro, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia’s lawyer, asked “the Attorney General of the Republic not to criminalize, not to prosecute facts that are not criminal in nature, not to initiate political persecution.”

M^e Haro, who said he had given the public prosecutor a “memorandum” justifying Mr Gonzalez Urrutia’s absence from the prosecutor’s summons, was summoned again in the afternoon.

The lawyer also reported tensions during the delivery of the document: “They [me] “practically confiscated it,” he said.

“It is for this type of situation that Mr. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia did not appear” for the summons, he stressed.

Mr Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have been living in hiding for a month.

Petro-Lula-Maduro meeting?

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 has not, however, made public the minutes of the polling stations.

According to the opposition, which published the minutes provided by its scrutineers, Mr Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.

The prosecution’s investigation into the site’s publications includes accusations of “disobedience to the law”, “conspiracy”, “usurpation of functions” and “sabotage”.

On the diplomatic front, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo announced Tuesday that Mr. Lula and Mr. Petro, both leftists, planned to meet Mr. Maduro, possibly on Wednesday. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador could also attend.

Colombia and Brazil, which are trying to mediate the crisis, expressed “deep concern” after the arrest warrant was issued for Mr Gonzalez Urrutia.

In a report published on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing “shocking brutality” by security forces, denounced “widespread human rights violations against demonstrators, opponents, critics” and also “bystanders” in the wake of Mr. Maduro’s contested re-election.

“Human Rights Watch has documented that Venezuelan authorities and pro-government armed groups known as ‘colectivos’ have committed widespread abuses, including killings, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions, and harassment of critics,” the report said.

In addition, the American channel CNN revealed on Wednesday that a member of the US Navy was arrested on August 30 in Caracas.

“We are aware of reports that a US Navy sailor was taken into custody on August 30 […] by Venezuelan authorities, while he was in Venezuela for personal reasons,” the Pentagon confirmed.

The Venezuelan authorities have not immediately made any statement.

The arrest comes as the United States, which does not recognize Mr. Maduro’s re-election, seized a plane belonging to the Venezuelan president, a seizure that Venezuela has described as an act of “piracy.”