Caracas vows to arrest opposition leader if 'sets foot' in Venezuela

Tensions continued to mount in Venezuela Monday ahead of strongman Nicolas Maduro's swearing-in ceremony, with Caracas vowing to arrest exiled opposition figure Edmundo González Urrutia if he returns to the country.

The threat of detention came as González Urrutia, on an international tour seeking to increase pressure on Maduro to relinquish power, met with US President Joe Biden on Monday in Washington.

After the meeting, González Urrutia thanked Biden for his "support" in the "struggle for the democratic recovery of Venezuela."

“It was a long conversation in which we addressed various aspects of the bilateral relationship and we of course appreciated the support that the government of the United States has given us in this struggle for the democratic recovery of Venezuela,” said the opposition leader.

The Venezuelan opposition has released a large set of polling station data it says proves their candidate overwhelmingly won presidential elections last July which the loyalist electoral council awarded to Maduro without releasing a detailed vote breakdown.

In exile

The United States, G7 countries, and several Latin American nations have rejected Maduro's victory claim and recognised González Urrutia as Venezuela's legitimate president-elect.

The 75-year-old former diplomat, who found exile in Spain after the vote, has vowed to return home to take power on January 10, when Maduro is set to be sworn in for a third, six-year term at the helm of the Caribbean country.

Asked by a journalist whether Biden and the US government would accompany him in his attempt to return to the country for the inauguration, González Urrutia replied: “He accompanies me wholeheartedly, he accompanies me in the effort we are making and which is received with sympathy.”

But on Monday, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello vowed the opposition leader "will be arrested and tried if he sets foot in Venezuela."

Authorities in Caracas have announced a US$100,000-reward for González Urrutia’s arrest.

During his tour, which has taken him to Buenos Aires and Montevideo in recent days, González Urrutia has called for the Venezuelan military to recognise him as commander-in-chief as per "the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people."

But that call was "categorically" rejected Monday in a statement read on TV by Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino, who reiterated the Armed Forces' "loyalty, obedience and subordination" to Maduro.

Ties cut with Paraguay

Highlighting escalating regional tensions, Venezuela’s government on Monday broke off relations with Paraguay after the country declared its support for González Urrutia.

“Venezuela has decided, in full exercise of its sovereignty, to break diplomatic relations with the Republic of Paraguay and proceed to the immediate withdrawal of its diplomatic personnel accredited in the country,” the Foreign Ministry in Caracas said in a statement.

The Maduro government “categorically rejects the statements of Paraguay's president, Santiago Peña, who, ignoring international law and the principle of non-intervention, relapses into a failed practice reminiscent of the political fantasies of the defunct Lima Group with its ridiculous adventure called Guaidó,” the statement added, referring to former opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who in 2019 headed a symbolic interim government that was backed at the time by half a hundred governments. 

Following international questioning of Maduro's proclamation as victor, the Venezuelan government has now cut ties with Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.

Freedom 'must be won'

Over the weekend, opposition leader María Corina Machado called for mass protests on Thursday, the day before the inauguration.

The wildly popular politician had won an opposition primary by a wide margin, but was barred from running in the election by institutions loyal to the Maduro regime.

González Urrutia stepped in to replace her at the last minute.

Machado has been in hiding since the vote, but has appeared at a handful of rallies in Caracas and said she would march side-by-side with Venezuelans again Thursday.

"This day will be recorded in history as the day Venezuela said: ‘Enough!’" she said in a video on X. "Freedom cannot be begged for... it must be conquered, it must be won."

Crackdown

Mass protests broke out following Maduro's victory claim, with crackdowns and clashes leaving at least 28 people dead, some 200 hurt and over 2,400 arrested.

The prosecutor's office said Monday that some 1,500 of those detained have since been freed.

Since the disputed election, Caracas has passed a law punishing support for sanctions against the Maduro regime with up to 30 years in prison.

That came after Washington imposed asset freezes on 21 top Venezuelan security and cabinet officials over the campaign of repression.

After Venezuela's last fraught election in 2018, also tainted by fraud claims, then-president Donald Trump applied a policy of maximum pressure on Maduro.

He imposed an embargo on oil from the country with the world's largest proven oil reserves.

It did nothing to loosen Maduro's grip on power.

The measures were later softened by Biden only to be partly reinstated last April.

Maduro is accused by critics of driving the economy into the ground.

More than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela's 30 million citizens have emigrated since he came to power in 2013.

– TIMES/AFP