Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who claims victory in the presidential election, refused to appear before the Supreme Court on Wednesday as part of a procedure launched by Nicolás Maduro to “validate” his contested re-election.
” If I go [à la Cour Suprême]I will be endangering not only my freedom but also, more importantly: the will of the Venezuelan people expressed on July 28,” the date of the election, Mr. González Urrutia wrote in a statement on X.
Citing his “absolute vulnerability,” the 74-year-old candidate, who had replaced at short notice María Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition declared ineligible, has not been seen in public for more than a week, while Maduro regularly calls him a “criminal.”
Mr. González Urrutia is at risk of arrest, especially since the prosecutor’s office opened an investigation against him and María Corina Machado for “usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information, incitement to disobedience of the law, incitement to insurrection, criminal association.”
“It is noted that citizen Edmundo González Urrutia did not appear. It is important that his failure to appear and his failure to comply with the summons be recorded in the minutes,” said the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), Caryslia Rodriguez, at the headquarters of the high court.
Maduro’s re-election was proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which did not, however, provide details of the voting by the polling stations.
The CNE, like the TSJ, is considered to be at the beck and call of the government by the opposition and by most observers.
The Supreme Court, which has summoned all the candidates, as well as other officials, as part of its referral by Mr. Maduro, said it was giving itself “15 extendable days” to issue a decision. Mr. Maduro has a date Friday.
Other representatives of the opposition coalition responded to the TSJ’s call on Wednesday.
“Attempted to defraud”
Simon Calzadilla, of the Movement for Venezuela (MPV), who supported Mr. González Urrutia, noted that “no political party knows eleven days after the electoral process what the result of the vote was.”
Contesting the summons of the opposition leader, Simon Calzadilla added: “We do not understand what we are doing here. The TSJ cannot usurp the constitutional functions of the electoral power [et] “certify results” which must be given by the CNE.
Internationally, Chilean President Gabriel Boric has increased pressure on the Venezuelan president. “I have no doubt that the Maduro regime has attempted fraud,” he said.
“If that were not the case, they would have shown the famous minutes. Why didn’t they do it? If they had won, it is clear that they would have shown the minutes,” Boric said in Santiago, Chile.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “spoke with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Matthew Miller said, stressing that the two men “expressed concern for the safety and well-being of opposition leaders.”
Several countries, including the United States and Argentina, have recognized Mr. González Urrutia as the winner of the vote, while others, such as the European Union, have abstained from doing so while demanding the full publication of the minutes.
The CNE ratified Maduro’s victory with 52% of the vote, but did not make public all the polling station minutes, claiming that they had been hacked. CNE President Elvis Amoroso said he had submitted the minutes to the Supreme Court on Monday.
These are the documents that the opposition and part of the international community are demanding.
According to the opposition, which published the minutes obtained through its scrutineers – the validity of which is rejected by Mr Maduro – Mr González Urrutia won the election with 67% of the vote.
The unrest that followed the proclamation of the outgoing president’s victory left 24 dead, according to a report updated Tuesday by human rights organizations.
Mr. Maduro announced the death of two members of the National Guard and the arrest of more than 2,200 people.
The armed forces, the pillar of power, reaffirmed their loyalty to the Venezuelan president on Tuesday, firmly rejecting “the desperate and seditious proposals” of the opposition which had called on the military to side “with the people.”