Maduro's Prosecutors Request Arrest Warrant Against Winner of Venezuelan Elections
Maduro & Co. increase the pressure against Edmundo González Urrutia by making the first move toward his arrest
Via Instagram. That’s how we learned that the Maduro administration made its first move toward the arrest of Edmundo González Urrutia, the winner of the Venezuelan presidential elections. At this point, given all the evidence, there shouldn’t be a doubt about who won the elections, and there shouldn’t be too much rodeo in calling things what they are.
This document, published on Instagram, is a request by a prosecutor from Tarek William Saab’s office filed before a criminal court with jurisdiction over terrorism to issue an arrest warrant against González. The crimes listed in the request are: usurpation of public functions, forging public documents, sabotaging computer systems, instigation to disobey the law, and conspiring against the State.
And the caption of the instagram post reads that the court agreed to issue the arrest warrant.
This is a bold move by Maduro and a change of strategy compared to what the government did with Juan Guaidó, where they simply wore him out and only went after him once his popularity had waned. The difference here, perhaps, is that it is unlikely that the government will be able to get their hands on González and probably that’s why they are moving against him—maybe he’s in hiding, maybe he already left. A whole other story is María Corina Machado, who is the actual holder of the popular support.
But this is still a developing story, the only thing we know is that the request was filed by Auxiliary Prosecutor Luis Ernesto Duenez Reyes before a first instance Court with jurisdiction over terrorism, on the same day that a very controversial plane that Maduro had been using was taken to Florida after the U.S. confiscated it in the Dominican Republic.
We have yet to see what the international response will be. But according to Bloomberg, the U.S. will snap back with targeted sanctions against fifteen individuals who had a role in obstructing the celebration of free and fair elections.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado reacted by calling people to keep calm and hasta el final.
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