Edmundo González fails to appear before the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office

Caracas. Venezuela’s former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez failed to appear Monday at a hearing by the Attorney General’s Office, which issued a new summons for Tuesday over the publication of electoral data on a website that authorities consider a “usurpation of functions.”

González, a 74-year-old former diplomat, has been under investigation since the first week of this month for publishing a public letter addressed to military and police officers. That same week, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it would investigate those responsible for the opposition website that published documentation for the July 28 presidential election.

The summons, released over the weekend by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on its Instagram account, was for Monday at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT), but after 11 a.m. González had still not appeared, according to Reuters witnesses.

Shortly after, the Public Prosecutor’s Office posted a new summons for González on its Instagram account: Tuesday at 10 a.m.

On Sunday, in a message on his X account, González said that “the Public Prosecutor’s Office intends to subject me to an interview without specifying under what condition I am expected to appear and pre-qualifying crimes not committed.”

Attorney General Tarek Saab “has repeatedly behaved like a political accuser, condemns in advance and is now pushing for a subpoena without guarantees of independence and due process,” Gonzalez added in a video on Sunday evening.

The former candidate’s absence from the summons could lead to his arrest being ordered, according to lawyers.

“The truth about what happened on July 28 is what will save democratic institutions (…) The minutes are the peace,” said the former candidate.

Governments and international organizations have asked the government of President Nicolás Maduro to publish disaggregated data from the elections.

Maduro, who was proclaimed president on July 29 by the electoral body and whose victory was validated last Thursday by the country’s highest court, has blamed González and opposition leader María Corina Machado for the protests that arose after the official announcement of the government’s victory.