Venezuela prosecutors summon opposition candidate amid vote dispute

Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia shows his ballot as he votes in Caracas during the July 2024 presidential election – Copyright AFP/File RAUL ARBOLEDA

Venezuelan prosecutors have summoned opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia for questioning Monday as part of a criminal investigation following the country’s disputed presidential election claimed by strongman Nicolas Maduro.

“Citizen Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia” is summoned “on August 26 at 10 am for an interview,” prosecutors said Saturday, as part of an investigation into the opposition’s publishing of electoral records which it claims show Maduro was clearly defeated.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who is considered a Maduro ally, had foreshadowed the summoning Friday, saying Gonzalez Urrutia would have to explain his “disobedience” of the authorities.

Saab said the opposition’s website, by posting what it said were authentic election results, had “usurped” the powers of the official CNE electoral council.

The CNE, which declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election with 52 percent of votes cast, is also seen as friendly to Maduro, but it has refused to publish detailed results, claiming cyber-hackers had corrupted the data.

Maduro has called for the arrest of Gonzalez Urrutia, who has not been seen in public since he led an opposition march on July 30.

The United States, European Union, several Latin American countries and multilateral bodies have refused to recognize Maduro’s victory claim without seeing the detailed results.

Protests in the hours following the vote left 25 people dead, nearly 200 injured and more than 2,400 under arrest.