Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 2:07 PM
Things are getting complicated for opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia. The Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation against both of them for six crimes, all of them capable of leading to long prison sentences, after they appealed to the army and the police to be “faithful to the Constitution” and “side with the people” in the wave of repression unleashed after the apparent electoral fraud of Nicolás Maduro.
The highest representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Tarek William Saab, explains in his accusation letter that the two opponents “falsely announce a winner of the elections other than the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Committee,” in reference to the complaint by the Democratic Unitary Platform that its candidate, Edmundo González, obtained almost four million more votes than the Chavista leader, according to the minutes of the ballot boxes that they have managed to gather. Tarek William also blames González and Machado for “inciting” the security forces to “disobey the laws.”
The investigation could lead to up to six serious criminal charges, including usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to agitate the streets, instigation to disobedience of the law and insurrection, as well as separate charges of criminal association and conspiracy. Any of these charges would mean that the two opposition politicians would end up in prison.
The Democratic Unitary Platform decided on Monday to halt its street protests after Sunday’s demonstrations in which tens of thousands of Venezuelans came out to protest in favour of freedom and against electoral fraud. Its aim is to reduce the wave of repression that has so far left around twenty dead, hundreds wounded and between one and two thousand arrested. The courts have initiated a sort of express trials in many of which the protesters are accused of “terrorism.”
A low profile
The opposition’s idea is to keep a low profile in its protests and trust its fate to the action of the international community, which is putting ever stronger pressure on the Chavista regime to transparently validate its electoral victory.
In a statement, Machado and González asked the National Guard and the army to prevent Maduro’s “coup d’état” and to stand “on the side of the people and their own families.” In reference to the charges and arrests during the protests, both consider that “you can and should stop these actions immediately. We urge you to prevent the regime’s rampage against the people and to respect, and to ensure respect, the results of the elections,” says the statement, which makes clear how the victory at the polls fell on the side of Edmundo González.
“The high command is aligned with Maduro and his vile interests. Meanwhile, you are represented by the people who went out to vote, by your comrades in the National Armed Forces, by your family and friends, whose will was expressed on July 28 and which you know,” the message concludes. The opposition leader and the candidate have remained in hiding since last week in anticipation of an arrest that high-ranking Chavista officials are demanding almost continuously.
Another court order could also be issued against Edmundo González, which was issued by the High Court of Justice. The electoral chamber of this body has already received the minutes provided by the National Commission on election day; the same ones that critics describe as “rigged” and that the Government has not wanted to make public. The court will call all the political leaders who went to the polls in the next few days to validate them so that the chamber can subsequently legitimize the counting of votes. There are a dozen candidates, of which Maduro and eight of them already gave their approval to the minutes on July 29. The remaining one is Edmundo González, who has been summoned to the court this Wednesday. If he does not appear, as is expected, the High Court has announced that it will press charges against him.
Meanwhile, Maduro, after threatening to ban the use of applications such as TikTok, has lashed out against WhatsApp, which, in his opinion, is being used to “threaten different sectors of Venezuela.” “They are threatening the Venezuelan military family. They are threatening the police family. The street leaders, the community leaders,” the Chavista leader has emphasized, who has encouraged young people to do without this network and move to others such as Wechat, “the Chinese one, which is very good.” What the president certainly does not give up is his daily television program, ‘Con Maduro+’, which premiered its third edition on Monday night.
#Prosecutors #Office #investigating #Corina #Machado #Edmundo #González #insurrection #Diario #Vasco