The News
A Venezuelan judge issued an arrest warrant for opposition candidate Edmundo González, who is widely believed to have won the country’s recent presidential election despite President Nicolás Maduro declaring victory.
González is accused of criminal association and conspiracy, according to the public prosecutor, after he published data to suggest he won the election by more than a 30% margin compared to Maduro. González could be sentenced to up to 26 years in prison if convicted.
Despite preemptive polling suggesting the opposition was on track for a landslide win, Venezuela’s electoral council had proclaimed Maduro the winner, but officials have failed to provide any evidence, leading to mass domestic protests. The arrest warrant was announced hours after US authorities seized Maduro’s private plane in the Dominican Republic, alleging it violated US sanctions.
SIGNALS
Political tension is rising domestically and globally
The warrant has significantly ramped up political tensions in Venezuela: Some 1,700 people have been arrested in protests against Maduro, at least 25 of whom have died, while hundreds have been taken to high-security prisons on allegations of terrorism. Some of those arrested are key allies of González, including lawyer Perkins Rocha, according to The Guardian. Beyond Venezuela, the pressure has also continued to rise: Brazilian and Colombian authorities have called on Maduro to publish evidence of his victory, while the US and European Union have refused to support his claim. In seizing Maduro’s plane, the US is “sending a clear message,” one official told CNN. “No one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions.”
Opposition denounces government “persecution”
The main opposition coalition, which is made up of ten parties, has denounced the repeated judicial summons for González as a form of “judicial persecution.” María Corina Machado, an opposition leader who was previously banned from running for election and is allied with González, said in a social media post on Monday that the arrest warrant showed the government has “lost all sense of reality.” Meanwhile, President Maduro announced that Christmas would be brought forward to October 1 this year in Venezuela, a move seen locally as an attempt to distract from the escalating domestic tensions, according to Brazilian newspaper O Globo.