Edmundo Gonzalez, who competed towards incumbent Nicolas Maduro in July’s presidential elections, says masked males kidnapped his son-in-law in Caracas.
Edmundo Gonzalez, the chief of Venezuela’s political opposition, has accused masked males of kidnapping his son-in-law, who stays lacking.
Gonzalez, who ran within the nation’s contested presidential election in July, introduced the information on social media on Tuesday.
“This morning my son-in-law Rafael Tudares was kidnapped,” Gonzalez wrote.
“Rafael was heading to my grandchildren’s college, ages 7 and 6, in Caracas, to drop them off for the beginning of courses, and he was intercepted by hooded males wearing black, who put him in a gold-coloured pickup truck with the license plate AA54E2C and took him away. At the moment he’s lacking.”
Gonzalez himself at present faces an arrest warrant in Venezuela, the place he has asserted that he’s the rightful winner of the July 28 presidential contest.
That has put him at odds with incumbent President Nicolas Maduro, who likewise claimed victory. Maduro is about to be sworn in for a 3rd time period on Friday.
The opposition and different critics of Maduro’s authorities have protested towards the election and the official outcomes, which they preserve lacked transparency and equity.
Pre-election polling appeared to point out Maduro trailing Gonzalez by a steep margin. However shortly after polls closed, the nation’s electoral authority declared Maduro the winner, with out releasing the same old breakdown of the voting tally.
Venezuela’s opposition argued that precinct-level tallies present Gonzalez beating Maduro by a two-to-one margin, and so they have printed what look like official tally sheets on-line.
That raised doubts concerning the legitimacy of his victory, and protesters flooded the streets in cities like Caracas within the aftermath of the vote.
The federal government has, in flip, been accused of main a violent crackdown towards protesters and political opponents following the election.
Some 2,000 folks had been initially arrested, and 23 killed, although Maduro’s authorities lately mentioned it released 1,515 of the detainees. His administration has lengthy confronted accusations of political repression and human rights abuses, together with torture and arbitrary detention.
In September, prosecutors in Venezuela’s authorities accused Gonzalez of conspiracy, usurpation of powers and falsifying paperwork, and a courtroom issued a warrant for his arrest.
The opposition chief fled the nation and went into exile in Spain. However he has pledged to return to Venezuela.
The Venezuelan authorities, in the meantime, has repeatedly mentioned that Gonzalez will probably be arrested if he comes again.
Maduro and his allies preserve that Gonzalez and different opposition members labored with hostile overseas powers to destabilise the nation.
In early January, Gonzalez left Spain to rally assist in a tour throughout the Americas and put strain on Maduro’s authorities.
He has already visited Argentina and Uruguay, and on Monday, he met US President Joe Biden, whose authorities recognised Gonzalez because the reputable president-elect in November.
Whereas regional leaders have expressed scepticism about Maduro’s claims of victory and condemned the crackdown on protesters, it stays unclear what leverage may be exerted on Gonzalez’s behalf.
