Edmundo Gonzalez, who competed against incumbent President Nicolas Maduro in July’s presidential elections, claims masked men kidnapped his son-in-law in Caracas.
Edmundo Gonzalez, the leader of Venezuela’s political opposition, has accused masked men of kidnapping his son-in-law, who remains missing.
Gonzalez, who ran in the country’s disputed presidential election in July, announced the news on social media on Tuesday.
“This morning my son-in-law Rafael Tudares was kidnapped,” Gonzalez wrote.
“Rafael was going to the school of my grandchildren, aged 7 and 6, in Caracas, to drop them off for the start of school, and he was intercepted by hooded men dressed in black, who put him in a gold van with license plate AA54E2C and took him away. Currently, it is missing.
Gonzalez himself is currently the subject of an arrest warrant in Venezuela, where he has claimed he was the rightful winner of the July 28 presidential election.
This puts him at odds with outgoing President Nicolas Maduro, who also claimed victory. Maduro is expected to be sworn in for a third term on Friday.
The opposition and other critics of Maduro’s government have protested the election and official results, which they say lacked transparency and fairness.
Pre-election polls appeared to show Maduro trailing far behind Gonzalez. But shortly after the polls closed, the country’s electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner, without releasing the usual vote tally.
Venezuela’s opposition has argued that precinct-level tallies show Gonzalez beating Maduro by a two-to-one margin, and they have posted what appear to be official tally sheets online.
This raised doubts about the legitimacy of his victory and protesters took to the streets of cities like Caracas in the aftermath of the vote.
The government has, in turn, been accused of carrying out a violent crackdown on protesters and political opponents after the elections.
Some 2,000 people were initially arrested and 23 killed, although Maduro’s government recently said it had released 1,515 of the detainees. His administration has long been accused of political repression and human rights violations, including torture and arbitrary detention.
In September, Venezuelan government prosecutors charged Gonzalez with conspiracy, usurpation of power and falsifying documents, and a court issued an arrest warrant for him.
The opposition leader fled the country and went into exile in Spain. But he pledged to return to Venezuela.
The Venezuelan government, meanwhile, has repeatedly stated that Gonzalez would be arrested if he returned.
Maduro and his allies argue that Gonzalez and other opposition members worked with hostile foreign powers to destabilize the country.
In early January, Gonzalez left Spain to rally support on a tour across the Americas and pressure Maduro’s government.
He has already visited Argentina and Uruguay and met on Monday with US President Joe Biden, whose government recognized Gonzalez as the legitimate president elected in November.
While regional leaders have expressed skepticism about Maduro’s claims of victory and condemned the crackdown on protesters, it remains unclear how much leverage can be brought to bear in Gonzalez’s favor.
