MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela: Arrest warrant issued against Edmundo González Urrutia

The man the opposition holds as “President-elect” poses a flight risk to Chavist prosecutors

A Venezuelan court Monday issued an arrest warrant against former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who the opposition insists won the July 28 polls with 67% of the vote, thus failing to recognize the National Electoral Council's (CNE) announcement that the incumbent Nicolás Maduro had prevailed with a 52% support. This result was later validated by the Supreme Court (TSJ) at Maduro's request.

The writ was issued at the request of the pro-Government Attorney General's Office citing that González Urrutia had disregarded three summonses to give evidence and was under investigation for “usurpation of functions, falsification of public documents, instigation to disobey laws, computer crimes, association to commit crimes and conspiracy.”

After ignoring the first summons, González published a letter in which he denounced the “flagrant” failure to comply with the constitutional and legal powers of the Electoral Authority, by not tallying and presenting the minutes of the July 28 elections, thus justifying his decisions.

“If I go to the Electoral Hall in these conditions, I will be in absolute vulnerability due to helplessness and violation of due process, and I will be putting at risk not only my freedom but more importantly, the will of the people, expressed on July 28,” he explained after the opposition cried “fraud” regarding the process through which Maduro claims to have been re-elected for the 2025-2031 term.

The opposition published some 83% of the voting minutes which would prove González Urrutia's unsurmountable victory even if Maduro got 100% of the vote in the remaining polling stations. But the Chavist regime claims these documents were “forged,” in defiance of what The Carter Center and other independent observers found.

After the TSJ validated on Aug. 24 the CNE's results, González Urrutia was deemed in “contempt” for refusing to attend the hearings. Attorney General Tarek William Saab considers him and disenfranchised opposition leader María Corina Machado responsible for the acts of violence in the ensuing protests that left 27 dead, almost 200 injured and over 2,400 arrested.

Saab's office also claimed González Urrutia posed a flight risk and constituted a “danger of obstruction” to the investigations.