Venezuela offers €97,000 reward for location of opposition candidate

The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has offered $100,000 (€97,240) for information on the whereabouts of exiled opposition candidate Edmundo González, who is widely seen as the true winner of last year’s disputed election.

González fled to Madrid in September after a warrant was issued for his arrest for alleged conspiracy as Maduro cracked down on dissent following his controversial presidential election victory on 28 July.

The Venezuelan police posted a wanted-style bulletin on social media on Thursday, with a photo of González and instructions on how to alert the authorities with any information.

They accuse him of conspiracy, money laundering and falsification of documents, among other charges, which the opposition says are all politically motivated.

“A $100,000 reward is offered to anyone who provides information about his location,” the police caption on Instagram said.

Initially, the authorities promised to pay potential informants $500,000 (€485,965), but the post was quickly corrected, according to the Spanish newspaper El País.

González, a 75-year-old ex-diplomat, rose from relative obscurity last year, after the opposition leader María Corina Machado was barred from competing in the elections.

Maduro, the former protégé of the late Hugo Chávez, claimed victory in the ensuing vote in July. However, unlike in previous elections, the National Electoral Council, which is stacked with his allies, did not publish detailed vote tallies.

The opposition, who decried Maduro’s victory as fraudulent, published tally sheets from 80% of voting centres, which they said showed that their candidate was the overwhelming winner.

Thousands of Venezuelans subsequently took to the streets to demonstrate against Maduro’s government, which responded with repression. Between 29 July and 6 August, the Venezuelan authorities arrested more than 2,200 people.

Amid the crackdown, Machado went into hiding, while González took refuge in the Spanish embassy, before flying to Madrid.

The US and many other countries see González as Venezuela’s real president-elect.

“It is clear to the United States, to democratic nations around the world, and to independent international organisations that observed the 28 July elections that opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes. That makes him the president-elect,” the US State Department said in November.

“The Venezuelan people overwhelmingly and unequivocally expressed their desire for democratic change—the publicly available voting tally sheets say so,” it added.

González has vowed to return to Venezuela ahead of next Friday, when Maduro is set to begin his third successive term as president.

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Hours after the Venezuelan police announced the $100,000 (€97,240) reward, González’s team said he would begin an international tour in Argentina, where is scheduled to meet the country’s leader, Javier Milei, on Saturday.

Argentina has shown its support for the Venezuelan opposition by offering diplomatic refuge at its embassy in Caracas to five of its members. They have been there since March, when warrants were issued for their arrests.

Thursday’s announcement about González came as no surprise, given that Maduro’s allies have, for months, warned the ex-diplomat about the reception he would receive, were he to return to Venezuela.

On his television show, Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello displayed a transparent “present” box for González — which was decorated with balloons and which contained handcuffs.

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Under Nicolás Maduro’s watch, Venezuela has suffered a severe economic crisis, which has caused millions of Venezuelans to leave the country in the past decade.