By The newspaper
05 Aug 2024, 18:45 PM EDT
Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office, which answers to Nicolás Maduro, announced on Monday afternoon that it will open a criminal investigation against opposition candidate Edmundo González and opposition leader María Corina Machado, in order to “determine their responsibility for the alleged commission of multiple crimes.”
In a statement published by the pro-Chavez attorney general, Tarek William Saab, González and Corina Machado are accused of allegedly committing the crimes of Usurpation of Functions, Dissemination of false information to cause unrest, Instigation of disobedience of laws, Instigation to insurrection, criminal association and conspiracy.
Hours before Saab’s statement, González and Machado published a joint letter addressed to the Armed Forces, in which, among other things, they referred to González as the “president-elect” and in which they asked the military to stand “on the side of the people” and not repress protests against the results announced by the CNE.
“We call on the conscience of the military and police to stand by the people and their own families. With this massive violation of human rights, the high command is aligning itself with Maduro and his vile interests. While you are represented by the people who went out to vote, by your colleagues in the National Armed Forces, by your family and friends, whose will was expressed on July 28 and which you know,” reads the letter from the opposition.
In this regard, the statement from the Attorney General’s Office states that the letter “openly incites police and military officials to disobey the law.”
“Falsely” announcing the results
In addition, Maduro’s prosecutor accused opposition leaders of “falsely” announcing a winner of the presidential elections on July 28 other than the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which also answers to Chavismo, the “only body qualified to do so.”
The CNE declared Nicolás Maduro the winner with 52% of the votes compared to González’s 44%, although more than a week after the elections, in an unprecedented event, the electoral body has still not published evidence of the alleged victory of the Venezuelan president.
Instead, the Venezuelan opposition published the electoral records issued by the CNE itself on election night and obtained by its witnesses at the polling stations. The records, validated by specialists from media outlets such as the Associated Press, El País and The Washington Post, give González the victory with 67% of the votes compared to Maduro’s 30%.
Earlier on Monday, Saab denied that there was an arrest warrant against González and Corina Machado.
“I would like to see it, where is it? Present those orders, let’s see them, but that doesn’t exist at the moment. There is a general investigation that has had the direct effect of arresting people who burned down public buildings with people inside, that is very serious,” said Maduro’s prosecutor to the Colombian media Caracol Radio.
Keep reading:
- Will Venezuela hold presidential elections again after fraud allegations?
- Maduro’s prosecutor in Venezuela denies that there is an arrest warrant against Machado and González
- European Union: CNE results in Venezuela “cannot be recognized”