(Caracas) Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who claims victory in the presidential election, said on Wednesday that he refuses to respond to the Supreme Court’s summons, as part of a procedure launched by Nicolas Maduro to have his contested re-election “validated”.
“If I go” to the Supreme Court […] “I will be putting at risk not only my freedom but also, more importantly, the will of the Venezuelan people expressed on July 28,” the date of the election, wrote Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia in a statement published on the social network X.
The 74-year-old candidate has not been seen in public for more than a week, while President Maduro regularly calls him a “criminal”.
The prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal investigation against Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for “usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information, incitement to disobedience of the law, incitement to insurrection, criminal association.”
The re-election of Nicolas Maduro was proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE). The latter and the Supreme Court (TSJ) are considered to be at the beck and call of the government by the opposition, but also by most observers.
“Citizen Nicolas Maduro […] publicly declared […] that if I did not appear, I would incur legal liabilities, and that if I appeared and filed copies of the poll records “there would also be serious criminal liabilities.”
“Is this an impartial and law-abiding procedure? Am I doomed in advance?” asks Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia, who has been summoned to appear before the high court at 11 a.m.
The Supreme Court, which summoned all the candidates, indicated that it was giving itself “15 extendable days” to render a decision.
A discreet diplomat, Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia had agreed to replace as candidate at short notice the charismatic opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, declared ineligible by the government.
“Campaign of terror”
She has also been living in hiding for more than a week, saying she “fears” for her life. She briefly appeared on Saturday at an opposition demonstration.
On Tuesday, she denounced a “campaign of terror” against the opposition, but assured: “fear will not paralyze us and we will not leave the streets,” according to a statement posted on social networks.
On the same day, the armed forces, a pillar of power, reaffirmed their loyalty to President Maduro, firmly rejecting “the desperate and seditious proposals” of the opposition which had called on the military to side “with the people”, according to a statement from the Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino.
The CNE ratified Maduro’s victory with 52 percent of the vote on Friday, but did not release all the polling station records of the election, saying it had been hacked. CNE President Elvis Amoroso said he had submitted the records to the court on Monday.
These are the minutes – with the office-by-office count – that the opposition and part of the international community are demanding.
According to the opposition, which published the minutes it obtained through its poll workers – but whose validity is rejected by Mr Maduro – Mr Gonzalez Urrutia won the presidential election with 67% of the vote.
The unrest that followed the proclamation of the outgoing president’s victory left 24 dead, according to an updated report made public on Tuesday by human rights organizations, including the Americas division of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Mr Maduro, for his part, announced the death of two members of the national guard and the arrest of more than 2,000 people, promising to continue the repression against what he calls an attempted “imperialist coup”.
Several countries, including the United States and Argentina, have recognized Mr. Gonzalez 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.