The United States does not yet recognize González Urrutia as president of Venezuela, but it does recognize him as the winner of the elections
14ymedio/EFE, Madrid/Caracas, 6 August 2024 — The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office announced on Monday that it will open a criminal investigation against María Corina Machado and the opposition presidential candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, for “instigation to insurrection,” after both called on the police and military to stop the “repression” ordered by the president, Nicolás Maduro.
The accusation has been quickly seconded by the Cuban regime, which calls the demonstrations in the Venezuelan streets a “reissue of an attempted coup d’état using Guaidó’s formula in 2019.”
It is no coincidence that, in the same vein, the official newspaper Granma published the statements of Vladimir Padrino, Minister of Defense, reaffirming “the most absolute loyalty and unconditional support for Nicolás Maduro,” whom he considers “legitimately re-elected by the people and proclaimed by the electoral power.” It is vital for the Venezuelan regime to guarantee the support of the military, and thus the president announced promotions of officers this Sunday. “There will be peace in this country,” says Granma, quoting Vladimir Padrino.
Padrino is, precisely, one of the military figures that Nicolás Maduro distrusts, according to a note published by El Nuevo Herald. “They have him corralled; they are watching him everywhere,” Maduro’s former head of intelligence, Manuel Christopher Figuera, who worked closely with Padrino before going into exile, told a Miami newspaper.
“Padrino is the one who is in a position to act; he has the highest authority over the monopoly of the nation’s weapons”
According to this source, the Venezuelan president has resorted to Cuban agents in order to control members of the Army who could “have doubts. Padrino is the one who is in a position to act, he has the highest authority over the monopoly of the nation’s weapons, but he is also the only one who could independently negotiate a way out, so he won’t be killed,” Figuera said.
In a statement, the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, indicated that investigations will begin in the face of this “open incitement” to the uniformed to “disobey the laws,” given that the opposition leaders asked them to “respect” the results of the July 28 elections that, they say, result in González Urrutia being the winner and not Maduro, though the latter was announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
“The aforementioned pronouncement evidences the alleged commission of the crimes of usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to cause anxiety, instigation to the disobedience of the laws, instigation to insurrection, criminal association and conspiracy,” says the brief, published on X by the prosecutor.
According to the regime, Machado and González Urrutia act “outside the Constitution and the Law” when talking about a winner other than Maduro in the elections in this “irritating document.”
The letter from the opposition, published on Monday, reiterates the complaint of electoral fraud by the Government and denounces the repression unleashed in response to the protests against Maduro’s proclamation, which has also been questioned by a large part