Venezuela requests arrest of opposition candidate who claimed victory

Venezuela’s attorney general’s office filed an arrest warrant Monday against opposition candidate Edmundo González, who the United States and other countries say clearly beat the country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, in the July 28 presidential election.

The attorney general has targeted González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, as part of an investigation into the opposition’s publication of vote tally sheets showing their candidate won more than twice as many votes as Maduro. The opposition published the receipts from more than 23,000 voting machines days after Venezuela’s electoral council claimed a victory by Maduro. Several independent reviews of the data, including by The Washington Post, suggest Maduro likely lost the election by a landslide.

The electoral council, which is controlled by the autocrat, has not released official precinct-level results from the election, despite repeated calls from world leaders. Instead, Maduro’s government has cracked down against the opposition, with a wave of arrests that has forced many opposition leaders into hiding.

Monday’s arrest warrant accuses González of crimes including usurpation, forgery of a public document, instigation and sabotage. It comes after Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab called on González to appear before prosecutors for a third time last week as part of an ongoing investigation into him. González declined to attend.

A judge must now decide whether to accept the arrest warrant against him. In a country where Maduro controls the courts, and has repeatedly used them to consolidate his power, the warrant is likely to be upheld. Venezuela’s Supreme Justice Tribunal last month ratified Maduro’s claim to victory in the election, providing a seal of institutional approval for the autocrat to remain in power for another six-year term.

González has remained in hiding in recent weeks as authorities have rounded up and arrested opposition leaders, sometimes on the street in the middle of the day. González was last seen in public more than a month ago.

“They have lost all sense of reality,” María Corina Machado, the driving force behind the González campaign, posted on X. “By threatening the President Elect they only manage to unite us more and increase the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo González.”