Venezuela’s Attorney General Seeks Arrest of Opposition Leader Edmundo González

Venezuela’s attorney general’s office has requested that an arrest warrant be issued for opposition leader Edmundo González over his refusal to respond to three summonses to testify about an opposition website that published detailed information about the country’s disputed presidential election.
The arrest warrant request for the 75-year-old González from the Democratic Unity Roundtable, an electronic copy of which was viewed by The Epoch Times, comes as part of a probe into his claim that he was the rightful victor of the July presidential election, in which President Nicolás Maduro was declared by officials as the winner.
The accusations leveled against González in the arrest warrant request include usurping official functions, forging public documents, instigating public disobedience, conspiracy against the state, and sabotage.
Venezuela’s national electoral authority and the country’s top court have both said that Maduro won based on a tabulation of a little more than half of the votes.
The opposition, which had been leading in the polls, disputed this and published their own voting records on the website. The records, which were based on ballot box-level vote tallies, showed a resounding victory for González.
Protests broke out following the declaration of Maduro as the winner amid lingering doubts and a lack of publication of detailed voting records.
Maduro and other ruling officials have accused the opposition of stoking violence, with more than 27 deaths attributed to the protests over the hotly contested election result.
In early August, Maduro said that some 2,000 civilians had been arrested in connection with the protests. He denounced anyone who challenged his administration.
Maduro has also said that González belongs “behind bars.”
The U.S. State Department has said that the declaration of Maduro’s victory “came with no supporting evidence” and that it found “overwhelming evidence … that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.”
A month later, the department said in an update that the Maduro regime has since “carried out widespread repression to maintain power” amid the protests and allegations of fraud.