Venezuela’s opposition leaders on Monday appealed to the army, the main pillar of support for President Nicolas Maduro, to turn on him and “take the side of the people” after his disputed reelection — a call swiftly met with a criminal probe.
Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation targeting opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia for announcing an election winner other than Maduro, instigating disobedience and insurrection.
The opposition insists Gonzalez Urrutia was the rightful victor of the July 28 presidential election, which has plunged the oil-rich nation into political crisis.
Multiple countries, including the United States and Argentina, have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner, while others, such as the European Union, have stopped short of doing so, while calling for full publication of voting records.
The contested election sparked protests last week that left at least 11 civilians dead, according to rights groups.
“We appeal to the conscience of soldiers and police officers to take the side of the people and their own families,” the opposition said in a statement in which they offered “guarantees to those who fulfill their constitutional duty” in a possible “new government.”
The statement, which Gonzalez Urrutia signed as “president-elect,” also urges the security forces to halt the “repression” of opposition protests.
The government has reported the deaths of two soldiers in the clashes.
The opposition statement said that top commanders were “aligned with Maduro and his vile interests, while you are represented by the people who went out to vote… whose will was expressed on July 28, and you know it.”
The prosecutors hit back with a statement that said the opposition duo, “outside the constitution and the law, falsely announced a winner of the presidential election different from the one announced by the National Electoral Council.”
On Friday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified Maduro’s victory with 52 percent of the vote against 43 percent for Gonzalez Urrutia.
The opposition has uploaded voting records onto a website which it claims show that Gonzalez Urrutia won with 67 percent of the vote.
The CNE, which the opposition accuses of being loyal to Maduro, has still not provided details of the vote broken down by polling station, and has said it was the victim of computer hacking.
Maduro asked the Supreme Court, which is also loyal to him, to “certify” the election through a process that academics and political leaders have deemed inappropriate.
“There is a Supreme Court and that court will have the last word on a process that is under attack like never before,” Maduro said.
The Supreme Court’s electoral section has asked the National Electoral Council to provide voting tally records from all over the country and the official documents that state the final definitive result of a Maduro win. The deadline for releasing these is Monday.
– Call for dialogue –
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday called for dialogue between the Venezuelan government and opposition to resolve the election dispute.
“A commitment to peace is what leads us to call the parties to dialogue and to promote understanding between the government and the opposition,” Lula said during a state visit to Chile, where he met with President Gabriel Boric.
Lula, a Maduro ally engaged in a sensitive diplomatic balancing act, has urged his Venezuelan counterpart to publish voting records to resolve the dispute.
Earlier Monday, Lula spoke on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We back the aspiration of the Venezuelan people towards a transparent election. This requirement is at the heart of any democracy,” Macron wrote in a social media post after the call.
Macron and Lula “called on the Venezuelan authorities to publish all the voting records of polling stations in order to guarantee the transparency and integrity of the electoral process,” the Elysee presidential palace said.
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