CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s top prosecutor said Monday he is opening a criminal investigation into opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González and his leader, Maria Corina Machado, who have abandoned support for President Nicolás Maduro and called on the military to stop cracking down on protesters.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab’s statement directly links the investigation to a written complaint sent by two opposition figures hours earlier about President Maduro and the demonstrators who turned out in large numbers to defend their votes in the July 28 elections.
In a statement posted on social media site X, Saab said the pair “falsely declared the winner of the presidential elections to be someone other than the one declared by the National Election Commission, the only authority qualified to do so” and openly incited “police and military officials not to follow the law.”
Saab said Gonzalez and Machado’s appeal documents set out a range of alleged crimes, including usurpation of office, spreading fear-mongering and false information and conspiracy.
The military traditionally mediates political disputes in Venezuela, but it shows no signs of abandoning President Maduro, even as the opposition has presented credible evidence that it defeated the self-described socialists in elections by more than two-to-one margins.
More than 50 countries will hold elections in 2024
Gonzalez and Machado called on rank-and-file members of the security forces to reconsider their loyalty to President Maduro.
“We appeal to the conscience of the military and police and ask them to stand with our people and their families,” they wrote in their lengthy message.
“We won this election without a shadow of a doubt. It was an electoral avalanche,” they continued. “Now it is up to all of us to respect the voice of the people.”
The authorities declared Maduro He won last Sunday’s election but has yet to deliver results. Vote tally The opposition claims to have collected voting records from more than 80 percent of the country’s 30,000 polling stations to certify its victory.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrives to address a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (Photo by The Associated Press/Matthias Delacroix)
A soldier carries chairs as election workers prepare a polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024. Presidential elections are scheduled for July 28. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix)
President Nicolas Maduro speaks to supporters during a government rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix)
National Guard troops work to disperse protesters the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Maduro said on Saturday The government arrested 2,000 opponents. At a rally in Caracas, protesters vowed to detain and jail many more people. At least 11 people have been killed in post-election violence, according to Caracas-based human rights group Foro Penal.
In a report released Monday analyzing the post-election situation, Venezuela-based human rights group Provea concluded that the government’s response to quell public discontent has been a “disproportionate use of force,” leading to the deaths of protesters and an increase in arbitrary arrests as a result of “openly coordinated actions between security forces and armed civilian groups supporting Nicolás Maduro to quell the protests.”
The group reported that, based on figures released by the Attorney General’s Office last week, the number of arrests of actual government opponents or people perceived to be anti-government figures represents about 42 percent of “the total number of arbitrary arrests recorded by Probear between April and August 2017, the country’s most significant protest cycle since 1989.”
In their letter, Gonzalez and Machado called on Venezuelans with family members in the security forces to urge their loved ones not to attack protesters or follow illegal orders, promising “guarantees” for soldiers who uphold the constitution but no immunity for those behind human rights abuses or who follow illegal orders.
Gonzalez, a former diplomat, and Machado, who has been barred by the government from running, are in hiding, fearing arrest or death, and Maduro and his top officials have threatened to jail them both.
Residents block roads and face off with National Guard troops in Caracas, Venezuela, the day after the presidential election, Monday, July 29, 2024, in protest of the official results. (Photo by Associated Press/Fernando Vergara)
A National Guard officer addresses voters lining up at the Andres Bello School as opposition election observers claim they were not allowed into polling stations during the 2024 presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
As Venezuelans take to the streets to fight President Maduro, international pressure is also growing for the Venezuelan government to release a full breakdown of the election results.
A soldier stands guard at the entrance to an open voting center during the presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
But so far, Maduro has asked the country’s Supreme Court, which, like all Venezuelan institutions, is filled with loyalists, to review the allegations of wrongdoing.
“Respect for national sovereignty is the driving force behind protecting the transparency of the (election) results.” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva He made the remarks at a press conference on Monday alongside Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric.
Boric, who cast doubt on Maduro’s claimed victory in an unexpectedly strong statement hours after Venezuela’s July 28 election, told reporters he discussed the situation in Venezuela with Lula on Monday but gave no details. The two leaders declined to answer questions, and their carefully worded statements suggested the region’s leftist leaders were careful to respect Venezuela’s sovereignty while expressing doubts about the official election results.
Several of Maduro’s staunch allies, including Russia, China and Cuba, praised his victory. Iranian President Massoud Pezechkian spoke to Maduro by phone on Monday, reiterating his congratulations and “condemning any foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs,” Pezechkian’s office said in a statement.
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Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami and Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
