Until three months ago, the world did not know the name of this low-profile professor, who ended up embodying the desire of millions of Venezuelans for change. He had been an ambassador during the years of Carlos Andrés Pérez, and reached the position of ambassador to Hugo Chávez at the beginning of the regime but soon became disillusioned with Chavismo to the point of joining the opposition.
He graduated from the Central University, which has always had a critical and leftist stance in Venezuela; there he studied International Relations and began his diplomatic career. But it was at the age of 75 that he had the great opportunity to become president, through the Unidad Platform of Venezuela, under the umbrella of María Corina Machado. On July 28, he was close to being president. According to the government, he received 44.20% of the votes, though without the official documents, but it is estimated that he actually achieved 67% of the votes. From the very moment the results were reported, Edmundo and his supporters took to the streets and demanded justice.
On Monday, September 2, the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office requested a specialized terrorism judge to issue an arrest warrant for his alleged commission of “usurpation of functions” and “forgery of public documents.” González Urrutia had been cited three times but did not appear as he disagreed with the charges against him.
According to Alejandro Alvarado, coordinator of the Democracy and Governance line of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, “This is a consequence of having fallen into Maduro’s game of calling for elections. It was irresponsible because it was foreseeable that Maduro would not allow himself to be ousted by a democratic route and that in Venezuela, democracy does not consist of going to elections; what they did was expose a man to a regime and its pressure, this is already the Venezuelan method. What happened was playing with the emotions of people who have had a very unfortunate history lately, falling into the hands of Chavismo and international sanctions from countries that do not understand a different configuration, and that is Venezuela.”
In addition to the aforementioned charges, he faces accusations of “incitement to disobedience of laws,” “conspiracy,” “sabotage harming systems,” and “association to commit a crime.”
Hours before this arrest warrant, the Unidad Platform of Venezuela stated on their website that 83.5% of the official documents had been uploaded. The PUV released these documents which were denied by the government, labeling them as false. In Venezuela, the atmosphere remains heated. The arrest warrant could be another reason to maintain marches and protests in the Venezuelan streets, as expressed by leader María Corina Machado, who stated that this decision would further unite the opposition, stating from her X account, “By threatening the elected president, they only succeed in strengthening our cohesion and increasing the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo González. Calmness, courage, and firmness.”
Meanwhile, international pressure and sanctions may make life in Venezuela even more unsustainable, already troubled by the Chavista government itself.