(Caracas) Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said Tuesday that opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado “should be arrested,” accusing them of being responsible for the post-election unrest.
“Maria Corina and Edmundo must be arrested. We do not negotiate with fascism, we apply the full rigor of the laws of the Republic,” he said during a session of the National Assembly.
“To those who believed that by sowing terror they would achieve victory… the opposite has happened. We are going to take to the streets to fight the terrorists and celebrate peace and the results of the election,” added Rodriguez, who was also President Nicolas Maduro’s campaign chief.
The National Electoral Council (CNE), which did not give details of the results, proclaimed Mr. Maduro the winner of the presidential election with 5.15 million votes (51.2%) ahead of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 4.5 million votes (44.2%).
However, the opposition, which claims to have collected more than 80% of the voting slips, says that according to its records Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia won with about 70% of the votes.
The announcement of the results on the night of Sunday to Monday was followed by demonstrations which left at least 12 dead on Monday.
Mr Maduro made similar comments to those of his campaign chief at a joint crisis meeting of the Council of State and the Defence Council, bringing together all the country’s powers: “I hold you responsible.” […] of everything that is happening in Venezuela, the criminal violence, the wounded, the dead, the destruction. You will be directly responsible, Mr. [Edmundo] Gonzalez Urrutia and Mme [Maria Corina] “Mashed”.