Parliament Chief Proposes to Request the Arrest of González Urrutia if He Enters Venezuela

The Venezuelan state’s insistence on arresting González Urrutia intensified as the president’s inauguration for the next six-year term approached.  Venezuelan Parliament Speaker Jorge Rodriguez asked deputies on Sunday to support the request for the arrest of the leader of the majority opposition, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia -exiled in Spain-, if he enters the country, after the anti-Chavez leader expressed his intention to assume the presidency, by assuring that he won the elections.  Previously, the Prosecutor’s Office had already requested an arrest warrant and the Police recently offered a reward of 100,000 dollars to anyone who provides information on the whereabouts of the opposition leader or provides any information that facilitates his arrest. 

The insistence of the Venezuelan State in the arrest of Gonzalez Urrutia intensified as the date of the inauguration of the president for the next six-year term approaches, scheduled for January 10, which both the current president, Nicolas Maduro, and the opposition leader -currently on tour in America-, promise to assume.  Given this situation, Rodriguez stressed the need to collaborate with the Attorney General’s Office, considering that the eventual arrival of the anti-Chavez man to the country constitutes “treason to the homeland” for attempting to incur in the “usurpation of functions.”  “We are obliged to contribute to the Attorney General’s Office. Each deputy and each deputy who defends peace will request, in case he touches a palm of the land of Venezuela, the immediate arrest for violation of the Organic Law Liberator Simon Bolivar, for usurpation of functions, for treason to the homeland, for money laundering,” said the Chavista. 

The Bolivar Law contemplates sentences of between 25 and 30 years of prison , as well as million-dollar fines and 60 years of political disqualification for those who promote sanctions against the Government or public officials. Rodriguez did not detail which articles of this law Gonzalez Urrutia would be violating by entering Venezuela.  During the tour that began this Saturday, the opposition leader has visited Argentina, where he met with President Javier Milei , and Uruguay, in whose capital he held a meeting with President Luis Lacalle Pou.  This Sunday he travels to the United States, where he hopes to meet with President Joe Biden to continue the search for support before the inauguration ceremony, despite the fact that the National Electoral Council (CNE) awarded the victory to Maduro, a result described as “fraud” by numerous countries and national and international organizations.  The Speaker of Parliament reiterated his invitation to Maduro to assume the presidency at the Legislative Palace on January 10 at 12:00 local time (16:00 GMT), while stressing that the president was elected by the people, according to the National Electoral Council, which has not yet published the detailed results of that contest.